


A Lion With Snakes Scales

by IAmTheUnsub



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Also I Wrote this when I was eleven so it's got a lot of stupid stuff, Creature Fic, Dark Harry, Ginny Bashing, M/M, Ron Bashing, Vampire Harry, Veela Draco
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-21
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 05:48:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmTheUnsub/pseuds/IAmTheUnsub
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A "Harry is abused and turns dark" creature fic with slash, street gangs and dark creatures. Also Harry likes toast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Dursley's are dicks

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Harry Potter obviously. Also I started this when I was eleven. Beware of grammatical errors and plot holes I'm attempting to retrospectively fix.

CHAPTER ONE-

Harry Potter had returned to the cupboard under the stairs.

It wasn't by choice, his uncle Vernon had decided that freaks didn't deserve the treatment he had been getting.

So all of his so-called luxuries were no longer his; Dudley's second bedroom, his wand, trunk, books and even his broom were gone. All of his worldly possessions had been burned. His uncle seemed to take extreme pleasure in forcing Harry to watch as he burned the photo album Hagrid had given him, the only connection he had to his parents aside from genetics, page by page. The only chance he had to see his mother and father smiling and happy, his only pictures of Sirius, reduced to ash.

It's wasn't all bad though, he lost his possessions, his spirit and even Hedwig. But he did get to spend a lot more time with his uncle. Vernon even brought a knife and the reek of alcohol along with him on his visits. These little bonding sessions often ended with Harry choking on his own blood and being left incapable of movement for several hours afterwards.

Twice a day Harry could be found curled up in a ball in the corner of the room, trying desperately not to let any of his new wounds press against anything. He'd watch his uncle leave the room, blood soaked knife in hand, with Vernon Dursley's parting words ringing in his ears.

"You deserve this. After all, you're just a freak." He would whisper as the blade cut into Harry's skin.

Harry remembered the first time his uncle had spat those those vicious words at him.

Harry had only been home for three days and not much had happened, he had to do all of the housework as usual, and the gardening. He hadn't expected any less.

His dreams of a relatively relaxing summer been shattered when two members of the Order of the Phoenix had turned up at the doorstep. His cousin had rushed to answer it thinking it was Piers. Dudley had opened the door, taken one look at the people behind it, gone white and run away covering his backside. His severely bemused mother had called after him.

"Duddykins? What's wro…".

It was then that she had caught sight of Arthur Weasley and Alastair Moody at the door.

"Oh my". Was all Petunia said before she fell backwards in a dead faint.

Vernon Dursley, having heard the commotion, came barrelling into the hall and was appalled at the sight before him.

His wife motionless on the floor, his son cowering in the corner holding his backside, the wretch of a boy sitting at the top of the stairs, trying to conceal his giggles and two… two freaks standing at his door.

Harry became very alarmed at the colour his uncle's face was turning, as did Dudley. The duo exchanged a look before edging slowly out of the hall. Dudley sneaking to the relative safety of the kitchen and Harry to his room.

Arthur and Alistair, however, had vastly different reactions to that of the boys. Arthur was fascinated by the colour the Muggle was turning, whilst Moody was on red alert and raised his wand to Vernon's throat. This, of course, caused Vernon to go a very unhealthy shade of purple and Harry and Dudley to stop edging away, both choosing to turn on their heels and run.

Harry didn't know how the wizards had calmed his uncle enough to talk to him, though he had his suspicions of tea spiked with a potent calming draught. He crouched outside the door with Dudley, listening; they only caught a few snippets of the conversation, just enough for the boys to piece together that the wizards were telling Vernon about Sirius' death.

The second they heard this, the cousins' heads snapped up amd they locked eyes with each other and in silent understanding they ran to Harry's room, both knowing that Vernon wouldn't hold back with Harry now that the threat of a dangerous serial killer protecting Harry was gone. Dudley quickly bolted the door behind them and pulled his cousin into a tight hug. Harry didn't know exactly when he and Dudley had become friendly, it had just happened when Harry had come home after his second year at Hogwarts.

When Harry had asked him, Dudley simply replied that he had realised the way Harry had been treated was wrong and that a child shouldn't be locked in a cupboard, forced to do housework and fed on scraps. Harry had been slightly cautious of Dudley at first but after a few days he had relaxed and had even started hanging about with Dudley and his mates.

Harry was quite surprised to find out that Dudley and his friends were in a gang, he had known that Dudley was a bully but didn't think his cousin had the guts to be in a gang. Harry also never thought he would ever consider a gang of thugs and murderers his friends.

Once his uncle had finished his "conversation" with the two wizards and the Order members had left, Vernon made a furious beeline to Harry's bedroom. Harry was cowering on the bed with Dudley in front of him, planning to shield Harry from his father's fury.

Harry snapped out of his reverie at once when he realized that Dudley was trying to protect him. He dragged Dudley to the wardrobe ignoring his protests and locked him in making desperate pleas for Dudley to please just stay silent. Vernon barrelled into the room, face purple, nostrils flaring... gleaming kitchen knife in hand.

"Where is it?" the huge man demanded

Harry was immediately terrified.

"Where is the owl? WHERE IS IT?"

Harry tried to reply. He tried to say something to save his first friend, but he couldn't. He came to his senses as he remembered where Hedwig was, she was delivering a letter to Dervla, a member of his and Dudley's gang, and she would be back any second. Harry began to edge backwards to close the window; his uncle was looking around with wild eyes, trying to see the blasted bird and didn't notice Harry going for the window. Just as Harry reached the window, Hedwig swooped in hooting happily until she was seized by Vernon.

Harry jumped at his uncle's side trying desperately to reach Hedwig. Vernon's short temper assured that he soon became tired of his freakish nephew's antics.

Harry yelped in surprise as he was lifted off his feet and into the air, suspended by a meaty hand wrapped around his throat. He could hear a lot of things as he fought for air; Dudley trying desperately to pick the lock on the wardrobe door, Hedwig's shrieks, Vernon's furious screams and his own blood pounding in his ears, then silence, nothing.

His senses failed him as he fell into a black abyss. The last things he heard were a sharp crack and a whisper

"You deserve this, Freak."

Harry woke up the next morning in the cupboard under the stairs. Hedwig was laid out next to him with a broken neck, dead as a doornail. Once he got over the shock, he realised that he was shirtless and could feel the uncomfortable tightness of something sticky drying on his chest. He went to the mirror on the back of the door allowed a broken sob to escape his lips as he saw the word FREAK carved into his chest like a macabre brand.

Dudley watched sadly as Harry Potter, lost in his memories, still refused to shed a single tear. Dudley knew that Harry was reliving the memory of Hedwig's death, he had been there, heard everything, and seen everything. But Harry had to relive it over and over again as a prisoner in his own mind.

The poor boy was often lost in his memories at night, not sleeping. Harry never slept, not since the first attack. He was too afraid to shut his eyes, just in case Vernon woke up in the middle of the night, craving Harry's pain. Dudley cursed the world in his heart for making his best friend like this. He very nearly screamed with rage when, in the darkness of the cupboard. Harry began rocking back and forth whispering to himself.

"I deserve this. I'm a freak. I'm not normal. I shouldn't exist. Freak"


	2. Dudley shows his backbone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which Dudley decides to be a decent person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still don't own Harry Potter. Also, to non Irish people, is "fucked off" a saying anywhere else? Or just Ireland?

Chapter two 

Dudley was fucked off. He was finished with his parents, finished with this humiliating facade of being an innocent little boy, finished with Harry's abuse at the hands of his parents. He was leaving and he was taking Harry with him. Harry was broken and Dudley was going to fix him, no matter what it took. He owed his cousin that much at least. Dudley kept up the 'Mommy's Little Angel' façade for one more day. Doing what he usually did to convince the monsters who called themselves his parents that nothing was out of place.

He convinced them to go out to dinner, though it didn't take much effort. His whale of a father had his shoes and coat on as soon as the suggestion had passed through Dudley's lips. The boy rejoiced at how easily his plan was falling into place, but he almost lost his cool when his father called back to him nonchalantly on his way out the door.

"Oh Dudley, the freak didn't get his lesson today, give it to him while we're out won't you? There's a good boy" the whale of a man told his son as casually as asking the boy to tape a football match.

Dudley was glad that Vernon hadn't waited for an answer before closing the door. If he had expected Dudley to reply to that command then the boy wouldn't have been able to keep his mask up.

The very moment the car turned the corner at the end of the street, Dudley ran to the cupboard under the stairs. He threw the door open and retched at the stench emanating from the small room. Sweat, blood and fear. He spotted the small bundle of rags, skin and bones that was his cousin and carefully scooped Harry up, gently cradling the younger boy his chest.

Dudley carried his cousin to the living room and laid him out on the sofa. He paused to take in Harry's appearance. Harry Potter was out cold, slumped over limply on the cushions. Malnourishment had taken whatever little body fat the boy had and he was left as easily mistakable for a corpse. He was pale and sickly looking with not even the slightest tinge of colour on his cheeks.

Dudley gasped as he saw the full extent of his father's sick abuse. Swears and profanities were carved into Harry's flesh, permanently scarring him. 'FREAK', 'WORTHLESS', 'FAGGOT' and 'WHORE' were but a few of the cruel words scattered all over Harry's body.

His father was too cruel to leave too much of Harry unscarred, in fact, the only areas left unmarked were those that could be seen clearly like his face and arms. He sighed and whispered to the sleeping Harry that he would be right back.

Vernon still believed that Dudley was on his side, hating the freak and punishing him as Vernon did. He was too stupid to notice that Dudley's 'beatings' never left marks.

Every time Dudley went to 'punish' Harry he was, in fact, helping him. Dudley always brought food that the poor boy could never keep down and did his best to treat Harry's wounds. His lack of knowledge on how to heal his friend aggravated him but he knew that it would be hard for Shadow, the gang's healer, to get in undetected and he couldn't risk being found out. It was safer for Harry to live with the injuries for a little while longer than die because Vernon found someone trying to heal him.

But then Vernon had told him something that Dudley just couldn't stand by and watch happen. The brute had been raping Harry, and worse still, he expected Dudley to do the same. He kept going on about it. How tight Harry was and how good it felt. As soon as the man had left the room, Dudley had been sick all over his bedroom floor.

Dudley reached his door, he didn't realise he'd been walking. He shrugged and continued into his room, pulling out a sports bag and packing anything of value. Money and weapons mainly, along with some clothes for both himself and Harry. He stopped outside his cousin's old room, before he had been put back in the cupboard.

He knew that Harry had not had time to take anything from his room before he was put back in the cupboard. He also knew his father wouldn't have touched any of it with a ten foot pole after he'd burned anything laying about that seemed important to Harry, lest Harry's 'freakishness' be contagious. Looking at his half empty bag, Dudley shrugged and entered Harry's room.

He looked around, his old broken toys littered the ground and unread books sat on the shelves coated with dust. He walked further into the room. Just as he reached Harry's bed, a floorboard creaked beneath his feet. Curious, none of the others did that. He pried the loose board from the floor and smirked, Harry was sneaky.

Inside the little cavern of space was a hidden treasure trove that his father had been unable to find. Sweets, cigarettes, alcohol and spell books. He studied the books more carefully, not all of them seemed to be school books, there were titles like, "Defence Against The Dark Arts: Year Five" and "Plants In Potions: How Herbology Can Be Used", which seemed normal for a wizarding school, well to Dudley anyway.

But then there were titles like, "How to Achieve Telepathic Conversations", "How to Appear Innocent, Even When Caught Red Handed", "Shadows Are the Key: A Beginners Guide on Travelling through Darkness" and "Dead and Gone? How to Raise an Army of the Dead". Dudley would've read on but there were too many books and too little time.

Dudley lifted them all out and packed them along with the sweets, cigarettes and alcohol. He was about to cover the hole again when something caught his eye. The tip of what appeared to be a stick protruding from nowhere. Dudley was puzzled about one thing, he already knew that the stick was Harry's wand, but, where was the rest of it? And hadn't Vernon burned it?

He reached into the hole to retrieve the tip of Harry's wand, hoping that it would at least bring comfort to the boy. He gasped in shock when his fingers came into contact with some sort of silky material, but when he looked into the hole there was nothing there.

Dudley frowned, he could feel it; he knew it was there, but he couldn't see it. He got a firm grip on the strange material and pulled, it came out easily and Dudley did his best to fold it and put it in his bag.

He looked back into the hole and saw that more things had appeared. Harry's wand was now complete so he packed it, deducing that his father had destroyed a decoy. The hole also housed a piece of that weird paper that Harry used. Dudley unfolded it, but it was blank, he decided it must be important because Harry had hidden it so well and so he put it into the bag. There was one more thing in the hole, a small, black, leather bound book; a large portion of which seemed to be subtly repaired.

Dudley flipped through it and found them all to have the same fault line as the cover, it was as if it had been run through with something, each page was blank except the first which said: "The Diary of Tom Marvalo Riddle." in large, looping handwriting, clearly not the scrawl of his cousin. He packed it. He checked to make sure that the hole was empty; he even felt around to make sure nothing else was invisible.

When he was sure that it was empty he stood and looked around Harry's room for what could be the last time. He started walking back to the living room, but as he passed his parents' room a thought struck him, why not leave his father a little goodbye present?

Dudley smirked and sprinted down the stairs, dumped his bag near the door and ran to the garage. He picked up a can of red spray paint his father used to touch up his car after the paint chipped while he was slamming the door on Harry's head.

He planned his gift as he ran to his parents' room. He finished about ten minutes later and stepped back to admire his work.

Everything in the room was sprayed with the words, 'FREAK', 'WORTHLESS', 'FAGGOT' and 'STUPID'. The same words scarring Harry. After some thought Dudley added two more words, 'MONSTER' and 'RAPIST'.

He sprayed his signature on his father's pillow then turned to a cupboard at his father's bedside, he opened it and entered the combination to the safe concealed inside. He took all of the money telling himself that it was a tiny portion of the compensation Harry deserved. He stuffed the money into his pockets for now then he turned and left. He was rather preoccupied trying to work out how long he and Harry had until his parents returned.

He checked his watch and saw that they had been gone for two hours, with the amount his father ate accompanied by the fact that his mother would demand that they get all the courses available, lest they look cheap to all the other diners (who were all obviously watching them like hawks), they wouldn't be back for another hour and a half at least.

He entered the living room and found the sofa that he put Harry on was empty. He felt a slight panic pool in the pit of his stomach; he calmed himself down and went looking for him. He didn't have to look long before he found his cousin.

Harry was sitting on a kitchen counter, swinging his battered legs and eating a slice of toast. He looked up when Dudley entered the room and as he smiled a shit eating grin he simply said,

"I like toast!" then continued eating.

Dudley chuckled at his cousin's child like nature and jumped up beside him. He may as well let Harry enjoy his toast; it would probably be coming back up soon enough. He was amazed at the other boy's strength. Less than an hour ago he had been passed out on he sofa, yet he had managed to drag himself to the kitchen and make toast.

Harry decided to start a conversation between bites. "So" he said "where are we going to go?"

Dudley thought for a second and answered "I think it's about time you met the whole gang".

Harry dropped his toast and looked at Dudley with excitement shining in his eyes.

"Really?" he asked.

Dudley smiled; he had already considered Harry a member of the gang even though he had never met most of them in person. Dudley nodded in confirmation and was engulfed in a surprisingly tight hug from Harry.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Harry repeated this so fast that Dudley could barley understand him.

Dudley called Harry's name multiple times before Harry looked up at him with his big green doe eyes, rimmed with blood and bruises. He frowned and looked at Harry's clothes. Vernon and Petunia had taken any clothes that had actually fit Harry and sold them, forcing Harry to once again wear Dudley's oversized clothes, though not before the couple had slashed them into rags.

Dudley had been slowly sneaking clothes home for Harry. In the two weeks that Harry had been home, Dudley had gotten him at least three sets of clothes which he hoped would actually fit the undersized teen. Dudley frowned and Harry noticed that his cousin's gaze was directed at his attire.

"I can't meet them looking like this!" wailed the smaller teen from his place in Dudley's arms.

Dudley chuckled.

"I don't see the amusing part of this! I can't meet your gang looking like I just walked in off of the streets!" Harry wailed again. Dudley smiled and told him about the clothes.

Harry immediately had tears in his eyes and wrapped his arms tighter around his cousin's waist.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Dudley asked. Harry sniffed and looked up at Dudley, emerald eyes shining,

"No one has ever bought me clothes before, I always transfigured my own".

Dudley decided not to ask what 'transfigure' meant and instead held Harry until his tears stopped.

"Come on; let's go get your clothes then we can leave". Harry beamed at him and followed him to Dudley's room.

He gasped when he saw the clothes laid on Dudley's bed. Harry could tell which set were for Dudley because they were very large

'Note to self' Harry thought 'look up weight loss spells',

For Dudley there was a t-shirt with a ribcage at the front and, upon closer inspection, a pair of bony angel's wings on the back, a pair of baggy jeans adorned with chains and some black trainers that he had drawn on with a marker.

Harry saw his own outfit and had to restrain himself from running to it. He had a white tee shirt with 'Angel (in training)' written on the front in Dudley's handwriting, a pair of bright green skinny jeans and a pair of black, knee high, lace up boots.

Harry got changed as quickly as his various injuries would allow and bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, humming hoarsely to himself whilst Dudley changed. Harry was grateful for his new clothes, but they hung off of his skeletal frame. The wide collar of his T-shirt slipped down his shoulder every few minutes. Dudley peeked at the boy every so often as he changed, worried that Harry would collapse again at any moment. As soon as he was ready, Dudley showed Harry his parting gift to Vernon.

Harry did something not very befitting of a Gryffindor, he sneered and spat on his uncle's pillow then signed his name beside Dudley's with the spray paint. Harry checked his old bedroom over for anything left behind and then, they left. Left Privet Drive, left Surrey and walked into the night.

It didn't take long for Harry to remember that the Ministry couldn't monitor him anymore; they thought they could, but that tracing spell was a fake. He had removed the actual tracing charm and replaced it with a duplicate that did not work properly.

Harry had discovered how to remove a tracing spell and replace it with the duplicate in one of the dark books he had ordered by owl from Malum and Poena's Emporium of the Dark Arts in Knockturn Alley just before he left Hogwarts for the summer.

Once he remembered that he could, in fact, do magic, he stood at the roadside and flung out his wand arm. Dudley thought that his cousin had finally gone mad, that is until the biggest bus Dudley had ever seen came careening around the corner. Not only was it large, Dudley noted, but it had three floors and was a violent purple colour.

Harry noticed his cousin gawping and smirked.

"It's called the Knight Bus" he said just as it came to a screeching halt in front of them.

"Well", said Dudley "if it doesn't quiet down, then it's going to wake the whole street!"

Harry laughed

"No it won't" he replied. "Non- magical people can't see or hear it at all".

"Right you are Mr. Potter!" said a pockmarked young man from inside the monstrous contraption with a smile.

"We are completely incognito" he continued, speaking more to Dudley. "I am Stan Shunpike, your conductor for tonight, I will be-" Stan paused, casting a glance at Dudley, and then turning to Harry.

"Is this young man magical, Mr. Potter?" he enquired.

Harry frowned

"No" he replied, slightly confused as to where Stan was heading with this.

"Well then", Stan said "how can he see the Knight Bus?" Harry opened his mouth, then closed it again, then opened it, then closed it and shrugged.

"I don't know" he said honestly. They both turned to look at Dudley who looked just as confused as they were.

Stan shrugged and said "some questions are best left unanswered. But if you do find the answer, I would be privileged to hear it".

Harry assured him that if the question was answered, then Stan would be the first to know.

They boarded the bus paying for beds and hot chocolate, foregoing the toothbrush. When Stan asked them where they needed to be taken, Harry shrugged and looked at Dudley, who rattled off an address in Muggle London.

"London?" Harry asked, "How on earth do you get to London and back, without being caught?" Dudley smiled

"Easy", he replied, "you simply tell mummy" he sneered the title, "that you want to buy her something special with your pocket money, she'll buy it like a shot, not care how long you're away and even give you more money!" he flashed a grin and pulled a huge wad of cash from his pocket.

Harry laughed at his aunt's stupidity,

"But," he asked, "What happens when you come back without anything and no change?"

"Simple, you ruin your clothes a little and tell her you got mugged" Dudley said, "which also results in her feeling guilty for being the reason you were out, which results in more money, dumb bitch". They both burst into riotous laughter, until an old lady with a stuffed bird perched on her head shushed them, at which point they subsided into quiet giggle fits.

By the time they reached their stop an hour later, Harry was fast asleep. Dudley regretfully shook the battered boy awake as gently as he could. Before leaving the bus Harry had a quick word with Stan.

"We were never here and you didn't see us" he insisted, subtly slipping the older boy a bag of galleons.

Stan nodded and with that Harry followed Dudley across the street, down an alley and into an old, rundown looking building with a large metal door. Dudley, in typical Dudley fashion, swaggered up to the door and knocked three times. A slit in the door that Harry hadn't noticed before opened up to reveal a pair of hard blue eyes. Those eyes widened when they saw Dudley and their owner hastened to open the door. As soon as the door was open, Harry could see that the building, although run down and empty looking from outside, was, in fact, a nightclub. Harry smirked slightly at the pounding music and gyrating bodies crowding the dance floor.

'I think I'm going to like it here' Harry thought to himself.

….

Meanwhile, Arthur Wesley's Muggle obsession was still in full force.

Upon learning that his modified Muggle car had actually worked, Arthur had placed an undetectable expansion charm on the interior of the garden shed and continued to mess about with muggle objects.

He had already made a television that automatically turned on if anything of interest to you was being shown, a fairytale book that, instead of having the story printed had small dolls act it out, and a rubber duck, for bathing.

He had more than enough money for all of his experiments. After all, he had Ron and Ginny watching Harry Potter and reporting back to Dumbledore, and he was paid handsomely for their work. The youngest Weasleys didn't complain about any of this. They had each been promised something of their own. Ron would receive fame and Ginny would get Harry, with whom she was desperately in love.

Arthur had no plans to tell the rest of his family about the money.

The twins were like Potter's bodyguards and big brothers, they protected him from anything they deemed a threat. Molly thought of herself as the boy's second mother and fussed over everything to do with him. Percy was forever shredding evidence against Potter at the ministry and listening out for any plots against him and Bill and Charlie, although they barely knew the child, were also very protective of him.

He had told himself that it was for their own good. They would feel so guilty if they knew members of their family were using Potter. It was for the greater good.

Arthur Weasley's thoughts were beginning to sound quite a lot like Albus Dumbledore's.

…..

Hermione Granger was in a bad area of London.

She had been shopping with her parents when they had gotten separated. She had stopped to look at a skirt in a window display and had been swept away from her parents by the bustling London crowds.

Hermione's brain was a very crowded place. She had several internal voices which conflicted on a regular basis. So often in fact, that she had named them.

There was a rather dominant part; this was the brave and stubborn side which she called her Gryffindor side. There was her brainy side, slightly smaller and less dominant than the first. She called this one her Ravenclaw side. There was her Slytherin side. Small, but still there. It made her sly and pompous and spurred her on when she had punched Draco Malfoy. There was her light side which was getting smaller every day as she witnessed the stupidity of the Order of the Pheonix as they blindly followed Dumbledore. Hermione thought of herself as firmly in the grey. Not caring who won the war and siding with nobody.

It was her Ravenclaw side which realised that she was being followed. Ravenclaw told her to work out a plan which would end with nobody getting hurt. Gryffindor however, was telling her to turn around, pull out her wand and put whoever was following her in the hospital. Slytherin was whispering dark curses in her mind to accompany Gryffindor's plan and the muggle in her wanted her to run as fast and as far as she could.

In the end she followed the muggle train of thought and bolted down the street. She couldn't concentrate with her head giving her so many suggestions, she didn't notice when one of her pursuers pulled out a gun. She did notice however, when a bullet lodged into her leg.

She fell to the floor with an agonised scream and looked behind her. She had rounded a corner just before she was hit and couldn't see her attackers. She almost screamed again when she felt a pair of hands close in an iron grip around her upper arm. But she didn't scream, because when she looked up she saw a pair of startling green eyes, bright enough to startle her into silence.

Hermione's captor dragged her quickly into an alley and hauled her to her feet, but made sure to keep her weight off of her injured leg. She broke eye contact and the spell she seemed to be under which was keeping her quiet. Her scream was silenced by a gentle hand.

"Be quiet!" her captor hissed, "'Mione if you don't be quiet then they'll find us!"

Wait a moment, Hermione knew that voice.

As soon as she recognised his voice she relaxed and her captor let her go. He quickly had to catch her again however, when her knees gave out. He lowered her onto the ground and stood at the opening of the alleyway.

The men who had been chasing Hermione ran past the opening and on down the street. Her captor stepped into the street and called out to them

"OI!" he screamed at them

Hermione didn't pay attention to the conversation. She was in shock at her captor's appearance. He had changed quite a bit since she had last seen him.

He had gotten a few inches taller, now just shy of six feet. And he was pale, really pale, unnaturally so even, but somehow he didn't look sickly. His hair had grown extremely long and had been streaked with a spectrum of colours. His style seemed different, very different. He was wearing black, torn skinny jeans and a tight T-shirt with the name of a popular muggle band printed across his chest.

Hermione looked at her own outfit, a white top that she had slashed at the back and right jeans, she had changed a bit too.

Hermione was pulled out of her thoughts when three gunshots sounded. She jumped and looked up to see her captor standing over her pursuers with a gun. The three men weren't moving. Hermione hobbled slowly across the street and into the arms of her captor.

Harry chuckled, "I missed you too Mione" he told her


	3. Hermione meets the gang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title is self explanatory really... Hermione meets the gang in this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nope, still don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter three 

Harry Potter was at a loss. He had no idea how to handle this situation. He had a crying Hermione in his arms, three dead potential rapists at his feet and he could hear police sirens not very far away. Harry looked at one of the men at his feet, thinking of the things he had said and thought about the girl he considered a sister.

~~~~~

"OI!"

The men had looked back at his shout. The look in their eyes had enraged Harry even further. They were impatient and lustful. Harry snarled and delved into the leader's mind.

'I wonder if this little fag knows where that brunette tease went' he thought.

Harry snarled and felt anger well up inside him. The man seemed too drunk to process the dangerous look in Harry's eyes or the snarl coming from deep within his throat. Or maybe this man was merely stupid. Either way, He wanted something that Harry had already laid claim to. If the drunk wanted Harry's pseudo sister he'd have to get through Harry first.

"Little boy," the man began in a sarcastically sweet voice, "have you seen a lady with curly brown hair run past here?"

Harry snarled again, louder this time. The man began to stalk towards him.

"You think I'm afraid of you? Don'Ma make me laugh" He smirked "you're what? Fourteen? Fifteen? You're no match for me, kid! I know you've seen the girl so just tell us where she is and nothing will happen to you"

Once again Harry snarled

"And what's going to happen to her, huh?" he mustered up his most sarcastic, Malfoyesque demeanour "Let me guess. Oh I know! She dropped her purse and you three good samaritans are looking for her to return it. Well then she lives in Hell, I'll get you there! No charge".

~~~~~

Harry drew a semi automatic at an inhuman speed and just as quickly had a bullet lodged firmly in each man's frontal lobe. He felt the air shift when Hermione winced as the shots rang out and hugged her tightly when she tried to rush to him. it ended up as more of a slow limp, as it is quite hard to rush with a bullet in your leg. Though, as soon as she saw the dead men she had fainted.

And so Harry reasoned with himself that his best option was to take her to base. Unconscious as she was, it wasn't safe to leave her in the middle of the road, especially not in such a dangerous area with three, still bleeding corpses and the police on the way, besides; he didn't know where she lived. Strangely enough it was safer to take her to a house full of various mythical creatures, professional killers and a Dudley who was still struggling with the healthy lifestyle Harry had set out for him and who could possibly attempt to eat Hermione.

"Don't be ridiculous, Harry!" he reprimanded himself quietly as he carried his unconscious almost-sister down the street "you could lure him away with a bar of chocolate"

As Harry carried Hermione down the street, he was left alone with his thoughts. Hermione had always been forgiving and understanding, but could she accept him for what he was; a creature, a killer.

'Wow' Harry thought sarcastically, 'I never have been normal, have I?'

'Of course not!' a little voice that was not his own answered in his head, 'that would've been too easy!'

Harry sighed 'stay out of my head, Viper!' he thought back at the telepath.

Of course, he got no answer.

It didn't take Harry long to carry Hermione back to the club. Heaven was the ironically named nightclub that the 'Fallen Angels' gang owned and used as a front for their less than legal activities. Harry's thoughts turned to his newfound family.

There was Dudley, who wasn't exactly new to Harry's life but his friendly attitude was something that Harry was still getting to grips with. Dervla, a Veela who had been sentenced to death by the ministry and had flirted her way out of the building before fleeing into the night. Shadow, nobody knew her real name but Harry, they had a lot in common. Shadow was a witch, but her parents had refused to let her go to Hogwarts, they had burned her letters and locked her away for years. She was beaten daily and had some of the same words carved into her skin as Harry did. They had bonded over their identical wounds, both physical and mental.

Ash, Blade and Ruby were triplets, but not in blood, Ash and Ruby were duplicates of Blade, she had been lonely and had asked Shadow to find her some friends who she could relate to. Shadow, with her twisted sense if humour, transfigured two strands of Blade's into exact copies of the girl. Pierce was like Dudley, mortal. He was sick of living at home and had run away to New York at thirteen, he had become a master assassin, gotten arrested when he was seventeen, escaped, fled to England and, coincidentally, he had been Harry's first boyfriend. Harry had ended the relationship about a week ago and Pierce didn't seem to be dealing with it well, he always had a longing look in his eye when he looked at Harry and he would beg Harry to reconsider but hadn't tried anything physical yet. Harry had quickly gone back to the routine he had fallen into before Pierce, picking up random partners for the night.

Xander was a werewolf from Greyback's pack. Harry had met Greyback a few times and, surprisingly, he wasn't as bad as people thought, Harry had actually found the man to be quite funny. Xander was always looking out for Harry; he was so protective that he had taken to calling Harry "Cub" or "Pup". Viper was a very annoying vampire with a flare for telekinesis who found great pleasure in constantly annoying Harry, he often refused to leave Harry's head without the younger creature threatening him with grievous bodily harm or injuring Max, the older Vampire's mate. A vampire's mate is the most precious thing in the world to the vampire, the mate is revealed to the Vampire once they both reach the age of sixteen, when all beings come into any blood inheritance. Once a vampire has found it's mate they will never want to leave them or hurt them. Max was a witch, but she had been home schooled and was a very socially awkward person; she didn't speak much and gave off bad vibes. Harry did not trust her.

The area in which the Fallen Angels' club resided was a very unsafe place. It housed the scum of the earth. Junkies, dealers, prostitutes and criminals on every corner, in every doorway and in every gutter. These people were nothing compared to the Fallen Angels.

"Knock, knock!" Harry sang through the door.

Pierce slid the slit in the door back and looked at Harry suspiciously,

"Why didn't you knock properly?" he asked, not spotting Hermione.

Harry held her up a little bit to show Pierce,

"I didn't have any arms!", he told the killer in a babyish voice, pushing out his lower lip, that seemed to work as Pierce's eyes glazed over slightly and he opened the door.

The club wasn't much of a sight during the day. It was mostly filled with the remains of Mortals who had served as dinner last night for those members of the gang who weren't human. Harry sauntered to one of the sofas scattered around the areas where they wouldn't interfere with the dance floor. He kicked a corpse off of it and laid his sister in the former man's place. He pulled a blanket off of a sleeping Max, threw it over Hermione and tucked her in carefully. He placed a cushion under her head und placed a darkening spell above her eyes. Harry had blacked out enough times to know that it could be painful to wake up with a light shining on you. Hermione's stomach rumbled slightly. Harry frowned; he would have to get her some food before she woke up. He kissed her on the forehead and left, closing the door gently behind him.

"Who is she?"

Harry found himself pressed against a wall with a silver knife pressed to his throat, burning his skin.

"Who. Is. She?" Pierce hissed in Harry's ear, his cheek pressed against Harry's and his lips actually touching Harry's ear.

"H-Hermione!" he responded.

He felt Pierce smirk, the knife skimmed down Harry's neck, not quite cutting, but leaving burns the whole way,

"I don't need to know her name, silly", the knife continued down Harry's chest, still burning him,

"Is she your new girlfriend, Harry?" Pierce purred out the other boy's name.

"N- n- no!" Harry stuttered.

"Liar!", Pierce hissed as he pressed the knife into Harry's stomach, cutting this time, the skin sizzled, he chuckled as Harry gasped in pain.

Harry felt the knife penetrate his skin more deeply.

"I thought I could handle this, Harry" Pierce whispered as he dragged the knife down, slicing Harry open.

"If I can't have you, no-one will". Pierce snarled and drove the knife deeply into Harry's stomach.

Harry gasped and writhed in pain and disbelief, coughing up black blood,

"Especially not some little whore you picked up off of the street!".

All at once, Pierce's weight was gone. Harry fell to his knees, clawing blindly at his stomach in a fruitless attempt to stop the pain. He had stabbed him! Pierce had stabbed him! Harry felt his arms being wrenched away from his stomach and held firmly, but gently, behind his back.

"Hush, Pup" Harry recognised the husky voice as Xander's and turned to curl into the chest behind him.

Harry whimpered, letting tears leak from his eyes and soak into his mentor's shirt. Xander whispered soothing words into Harry's ear. Harry gradually relaxed until he felt his eyelids droop and his consciousness drift away from him. The world went black.

Hermione opened her eyes what felt to her like days later. She felt her pillow shift under her head and groaned. She felt her pillow shift again. She turned and nuzzled her head deeper into it, she noticed that it didn't sink under her weight and it was warm. That wasn't right! Hermione looked up and blushed, her pillow wasn't actually a pillow at all, it was a man. A muscular, extremely handsome man… with a lightning bolt scar.

"Harry?" she asked, the man shifted a little bit.

Hermione sat up and looked at him properly. He couldn't be more different than she remembered him. But why was she here? Oh!

The whole night suddenly came rushing back to her. She had been running from those creeps. They had seen her from across a street earlier while she was still with her parents and shouted over to her, leering and making obscene gestures. She had cussed them out, they hadn't liked that. They chased her once they saw her alone, but then she found Harry and he had… he had shot them! She was forgetting something, she knew she was. Shot, shot… she had been shot! Hermione ripped the blanket off of her and looked at her leg. Nothing, no cut, no scar not even a drop of blood.

"Yeah" said a voice from behind her, "Shadow's pretty good with stopping life threatening shit".

The brunette turned around and looked at her friend, who continued talking,

"I mean, could you guess that, about three hours ago I was stabbed in the stomach?" he lifted his shirt to show her, carefully covering his uncle's words.

"YOU WERE WHAT?" Hermione ran to Harry and ran her hand over his stomach, "HARRY JAMES POTTER, TELL ME RIGHT NOW WHO STABBED YOU! I OWE THEM A LITTLE VISIT FOR TOUCHING MY BROTHER!"

Harry watched the girl pace the floor muttering curses under her breath.

He was able to hold the laughter that was threatening to bubble past his lips in until he heard the phrase, "castrate that idiot with a rusty kitchen knife!" at which point he fell about the floor laughing loudly. Hermione fought against it but, in the end up, she too fell to the floor laughing hysterically.

Dervla found them like that an hour later still on the floor laughing but not as hysterically. Harry was leaning on his bedside table, Hermione was in between his legs and they were both watching an old black and white musical.

"Wow, Emerald" she addressed Harry, "this girl must have you whipped! You hate musicals"

Harry looked her straight in the eye and flipped her off with his thumb sticking out.

"Why do you do that?" Dervla asked him.

A puzzled expression made its way on to the boy's face

"Do what?" he asked her.

"You stick your thumb out when you flip someone off!" she exclaimed.

Harry shrugged and looked back to the television.

Dervla leant against the door frame and observed the pair for a moment

'There is something missing from this picture' she thought before she rushed from the room.

Dervla returned ten minutes later with a stack of magazines, a huge bowl of popcorn, a tub of ice cream and assorted chocolates.

She grinned, held them up and asked "room for one more?"

Harry looked at Hermione, who shrugged and moved over to make room.

….

"You're gay?".

"Well, yeah" Harry looked at his feet and nodded solemnly.

Harry had been showing Hermione around the club and introducing her to anyone who passed by when he had stopped, turned to her and blurted out his secret, well, one of them. Hermione pulled his chin up and looked him straight in the eye.

"Harry", she told him, "you are my brother! This doesn't change that. It doesn't matter!"

Harry drew her into a hug unaware of Pierce watching from the shadows. Waiting for his chance.

…..

"You are sure this is what you want Albus?".

Arthur Weasley stood before the Headmaster. He had just heard a plan that may overstep even his boundaries.

"I am positive, Arthur" the old wizard replied, "Harry has become a bit too opinionated for my tastes. He is my pawn and my pawns must be strong, but obedient. We will have him fall in love with your youngest, Ginervra. He will marry her and she will have complete control over him".

Arthur looked at the man, "how do you plan on doing that Albus?" he asked.

"Love potions are a powerful thing my friend, we will have Ronald place a vial of Amortentia, infused with Miss Weasley's essence and a strong loyalty draught, in everything Mr Potter drinks"

Arthur nodded,

"Once they have married, which will be done within the first two months of the school year, we will use a powerful binding spell to ensure he doesn't have to keep taking the potions. This spell will bind Potter to Ginervra. He will do whatever she wishes".

Arthur nodded, "what is in this for me, Albus?" he asked.

Albus wordlessly placed a drawstring purse in front of him, it jingled when he placed it on the table. Arthur pocketed it.

"You have yourself a deal"


	4. He's only gone and pierced his nipple!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we learn more of Harry... And his pierced nipple. We also learn that I don't like Ginny Weasley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still don't own Harry Potter

Chapter Four 

"You do know we have to go back, don't you Harry?"

Hermione's questioning voice was slightly muffled. She lifted herself off of the pillows on the bed and twisted around to look at Harry, waiting for his reply. The boy looked up from his magazine where he was studying new hairstyles and cosmetic ideas for both himself and Hermione. He nodded grudgingly.

"I know, but I'm contemplating a few things…" he trailed off, deep in thought.

His companion frowned.

"What things, Emerald?" she smirked as she uttered his codename.

He smiled and ran his hand through his hair.

"Well, firstly, we have changed immensely over the past month and a half away from the influences we are bombarded with every day of the week at that Merlin forsaken castle, have we not?".

Hermione nodded her approval of that statement, motioning for Harry to continue.

"Well, we've changed, but what if nobody else has, Hermione? I mean, I was pretty much born and raised to be a solider, to kill, and now I've changed even more than their tiny brains could handle. I'm, I'm…!.

Hermione was confused,

"You're what Harry?".

Harry sighed,

"I'm not human".

Hermione didn't respond and Harry's face fell. He turned away from Hermione and his shoulders slumped. Hermione thought for a second. Did this really bother her? She had dealt with Ron's idiocy and brutish attempt to court her and Harry meant so much more to the brunette than Ron ever had. She had dealt with Ginny's constant rants about every aspect of Harry's appearance without batting an eyelash. Appearing every inch the friend and confidante that the younger girl needed since losing Tom Riddle's diary, when in reality, Hermione had been gossiping about the baby faced Weasley's every word with every girl in every class she went to behind the gullible little snit's back. Hell! Hermione had even dealt with being shot by perverts, threatened by her best friend's ex boyfriend and living with killers for two weeks. Not to mention telling her parents she'd be spending the remainder of her summer in London with a boy they'd never even met! And after all that she was still by Harry's side and would be the whole way. And he had the audacity to believe that she, the girl he had come out to two weeks before, couldn't be trusted with another secret? Hermione wasn't having that.

"Harry. Emerald. James. Potter" her voice was steely as she stood from the bed, "how dare you. HOW DARE YOU!"

Harry winced, he shouldn't have thought she would accept him, nobody cared about him if he wasn't slaying dark wizards, rescuing ugly little girls with disgustingly bright hair (which did nothing for her pale complexion, by the way) from caverns beneath schools, competing against older, smarter students in deadly events, tied to a gravestone forcibly resurrecting the Dark Lord from his pitifully dependant state of being or losing the people he loved in meaningless fights.

"HOW DARE YOU KEEP THIS FROM ME! DO YOU REALISE HOW MUCH I COULD HAVE HELPED YOU? HOW MUCH RESEARCH I COULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU?"

Hermione Granger very suddenly found herself wrapped up in a tight, warm hug with a very happy Harry Potter sobbing into her shoulder. Her anger disappeared faster than dignity in a floo channel as she hugged him back, cooing into his ear.

"Come on now Harry. What are all the tears for?" she tilted his head back so she could look him in the eye, noticing as she did so, that he was, in fact on his knees, which explained why he was shorter than her.

"I love you, no matter what you are! You're my Harry, my brother and nothing will ever change that. Nothing" she kissed his forehead and he immediately brightened up.

He stood and offered her his hand, which she gratefully took.

"Well then" he said as he swung their arms whilst they walked towards the front door of the club and reached into the pocket of his leather trousers, (Hermione found it quite extraordinary that you could fit a pocket on those tight little, "painted on" things, never mind a hand inside that pocket) and pulled out two thick pieces of parchment, their Hogwarts letters.

"Lets go shopping!"

…

Molly Weasley was suspicious. Not only had Ron not asked about Harry once this summer, but he, Ginny and Arthur had been getting new things, and by new Molly meant new! Not second hand! She knew that her husband had not been given a raise. Nor had Ron or Ginny gained employment. So where was the money coming from?

Molly's thoughts were cut off as four overexcited children and one overexcited husband came barrelling down the stairs.

"WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?" Molly screamed.

Ron, Ginny and Arthur ignored her and carried on to the fireplace, shouting "Diagon Alley!" in turn and disappearing in flashes of green.

Fred and George however stopped,

"The Hogwarts lists arrived this morning Mum!" Exclaimed George... Fred?... George, definitely George.

"You dropped out of Hogwarts" Molly reminded the twins.

"We know Mum" they said together "but the poor students who decided to stay are going to want more and more jokes to play on friends, teachers and enemies! We're going to raid Zonko's for ideas!"

They didn't wait for a response as they carried on to the Floo, stepping in together and exclaiming "Diagon Alley!" in perfect unison before disappearing.

Molly sighed and followed them. Well, someone had to stop them from wreaking havoc on the poor wizarding population.

…..

"Come on 'Mione!" Harry called to his brunette friend.

"Harry!" she whined back, "I can't run in these damn heels that you insisted I wear!"

Harry smiled and stopped to wait for her to catch up to him.

"Here" he said, "let me help".

He knelt down next to her and placed one of his hands over each of her feet. Immediately the pain in her feet seeped away and her new shoes seemed to loosen up and feel cushioned.

She took an experimental step forward; it felt as though she were wearing a pair of comfortable trainers instead of the killer heels she had been struggling to walk in a moment ago.

Hermione looked at Harry,

"How did you…" she trailed off and left the question hanging in the air. Her friend looked up at her, smirked and winked.

"My kind are very gifted with wandless and silent magic".

Hermione frowned and pondered this insight into the secret species of her friend.

"Why can't you just tell me what you are?" she asked.

Harry smiled but shook his head,

"I don't want to dump it on you all at once, but I will give you clues until you figure it out… or we could play twenty questions?" he suggested jokingly.

Hermione smirked;

"I quite like the twenty questions idea" she told her companion.

He smiled back at her,

"Fine, but we have to do it later", Harry consented

A puzzled look crossed Hermione's eyes,

"Why?" she asked.

Harry jerked his chin to something behind her,

"We have company", he informed.

He plastered on a fake smile as Arthur and Molly Weasley entered Hermione's line of sight, the rest of the family following behind. Harry clasped Arthur's hand. He stared deeply into the older man's eyes for a moment before his friendly expression melted into a hard glare. Harry forced his expression to shift back into one befitting of the friend of a son meeting the family after a month and a half of being apart.

Only Hermione seemed to notice, she caught his eye and raised an eyebrow. His eyes sent a silent message; I'll explain later, they seemed to say. Hermione nodded and moved to greet the family.

Harry's eyes slid over the family, Arthur was hiding something, something unsavoury. Molly was just as happy and maternal as she usually was, fussing over Harry's new physique, asking if he had been eating properly and gasping in horror when she noticed a long, red, puckered scar running from behind his left ear, down his neck, across his collarbone and disappearing under the right side of his shirt.

"Harry dear!" she exclaimed quietly into his ear, "where did this scar come from?"

She carefully ran a single pointer finger down the scar, recoiling as if shocked when she realised that the scar was, in fact, very real.

The boy caught Hermione's eye and saw the slight knowing quirk of her lips, she knew exactly how he had gotten the scar.

…..

There had been a nasty gang war between the Fallen Angels and the Dragons, a group of street rats who never fought fair. The war had come to blows a few times but each fight had been broken up by either the cowardice of the Dragons or the amazingly annoying ability the police seemed to have of showing up in the right place at the right time… or wrong time, depending on who's point of view you looked at the situation through.

Harry had finally gotten sick of the fights continuously coming to nothing and had challenged the leader of the rival gang to a fight. He had even graciously agreed to meet the man on his own terms, which ended up basically meaning that Harry was to come alone with no weapons. The fight had been going well even though the other man had brought two other members of the gang. Harry had the upper hand and the other fighter seemed to know it, so Harry's opponent pulled a knife from his sleeve.

Harry noticed through his slight panic that the knife was silver which meant it could (and no doubt would) hurt him. Harry continued to fight until two members of the other man's gang had grabbed his arms and held them behind his back.

The Dragon's leader had slashed the knife deeply through Harry's skin, resulting in the scar. Harry had gotten angry. He had kicked out through the pain, sending his opponent flying across the room and into a wall. Harry shook off his captors, sending them to the ground where their heads slammed the unforgiving concrete and they fell unconscious, he then blurred to the gang leader's side. He crouched down to the man's level, smiling as he caught the fear in the man's eye.

"W-what are y-you?" the man spoke through a mouthful of blood.

Harry smirked and picked up the silver knife which had fallen from the man's grasp as his head collided with the wall, careful to only touch the brass hilt. Harry pressed the knife to the terrified man's throat,

"I'm your worst nightmare", he hissed into the fallen fighter's ear.

Harry quickly drew the knife across the man's throat, slitting it wide open. Blood spread in a halo-like pool around the man's head as Harry watched in satisfaction whilst the man choked on his own blood and took his last shuddering breath.

….

Harry came back to reality and assured Mrs Weasley that he was perfectly fine and safe. The words barely had time to leave his mouth before the twins pulled him into a brotherly embrace.

"Harry!" they exclaimed together,

"Still as handsome as ever I see!" George continued.

"Handsome?" Fred questioned, "He's downright gorgeous! Look at that scar! It's giving me chills just looking at it!".

Harry laughed at the brothers' antics. He was released from the hug and smiled at the two identical teenagers.

"Hi Fred, George" he addressed the boys, "how is business going?".

"Brilliant!" they told him, "we have loads of new products, we'd love to show you them once we get a chance!" Harry agreed and went to greet Ron.

"How have you been, mate?" Harry asked the lanky teenager.

"Fine, Mate, fine. Got a little bit of spending money actually" he told the raven haired man with a smile.

The smugness in the ginger's voice told Harry that it was more than a "little bit of spending money" as Ron had put it.

"Brilliant! How did you manage that then?" Harry asked his friend.

Ron shrugged, "did a couple of odd jobs for a few neighbours" he told the other boy.

"Ah" said Harry, "well, seeing as you and I both have money to burn, what would you say to some shopping and an ice cream?"

Ron grinned, "I would love to mate, what about you Hermione?" the ginger inquired.

Hermione looked at Harry, who gave her a minute nod of his head in reply to her silent question. The golden trio began to walk towards the Leaky Cauldron but they were stopped by a shout from Ginny.

"Wait for me! what kind of boyfriend are you, Harry?" she asked happily, "leaving your girlfriend behind with her family? You should always ask me to come with you, Harry! Don't worry; we have plenty of time to teach you how to be the perfect boyfriend".

Harry's eyes widened and he looked at Hermione helplessly. Hermione melted at the innocence and naivety in his eyes. She moved to stand beside him and wrapped an arm around his waist to settle in one of the pockets of the cloak he had thrown on over his muggle clothes.

"I don't know Ginny" Hermione told the girl, "I think he's a pretty good boyfriend already" she giggled and nudged Harry with her shoulder.

Harry smiled and nuzzled his nose against Hermione's. Ron gaped at the display of affection and Ginny stormed away down the street.

The rest of the Weasley's had caught up by now and Molly turned to Harry.

"My, my" she said, "what is she huffing about now?" she asked him.

Harry shrugged, Hermione still had an arm around him. Molly smiled kindly,

"Well, there's no sense in burning daylight now. Is there?" she asked the group rhetorically, "lets get shopping!". Harry grinned at the woman.

Hermione could practically see Harry mapping out a shopping route in his head.

"I can shop all day, Honey!" he told Molly with his hip subconsciously jutted out to the side and one hand rested casually on top of it, "as long as we are not restricting ourselves to school supplies or the alley! Tell me Molly, have you ever been shopping in Muggle London?"

When the woman shook her head Harry grinned and looped his arm through one of hers before he looped his other through one of Hermione's.

"Well, Hermione and I are going to treat you today!" he smiled at the maternal woman. Molly smiled back and agreed somewhat reluctantly.

Molly, Hermione and Harry walked through Diagon Alley arm in arm. Harry was intent on making the redhead even more pretty than she was at the minute. He had treated her to a new set of dress robes, a few hats and some things for the Burrow. And they hadn't even left the alley yet.

Arthur, Fred and George were trailing behind carrying the trio's bags. Ron had left to find Ginny.

As they neared the entrance to Knockturn Alley, Harry decided that if we were going to be himself and escape Dumbledore's controlling clutches, then he needed to know more about his species. He had looked in Flourish and Blott's for books that could help him research his species, but they were few and far between and those he had found were no more helpful than a Ministry pamphlet.

Malum and Ponea's Emporium of the Dark Arts was perfect for this kind of thing. He had ordered from them before. Malum and Ponea's was a very dark little bookshop situated deep within Knockturn Alley. It housed an incredible amount of antique and dark books in every language and about every subject known to man.

Harry stopped at the entrance to the slightly dodgy alley. The Weasley's looked at him strangely as he took a step closer to the entrance.

"Oh no, dear" Molly cautioned him, making a grab for his arm, "you can't be going in there, it's dangerous and seedy! You'll never get out unharmed, they will know you aren't one of them, that you aren't dark!".

Harry scoffed, "Molly, I have a huge, ugly scar dominating the majority of what skin you can see with my robes on. I think I am intimidating enough to make it through Knockturn alley and out again without being hurt. I will meet you all at the Leaky Cauldron."

He made to walk away again only to be grabbed by Fred,

"Harry, you won't look at home in those clothes; you will stick out like a sore thumb, to quote the muggle saying".

Harry smirked again and removed his cloak and tucked it into his waist band to hang out of the back of his trousers and brush the ground slightly. this revealed his tight leather trousers, netted vest top and black converse trainers. He pulled his hair out of the tight knot at the nape of his neck, letting it fall in rainbow coloured waves to brush his shoulders.

The Weasley's stared, open mouthed in silence until Fred chose to break it,

"Oh my God! George! He's only gone and pierced his nipple!"

"Go Harry!" encouraged George.

Harry laughed and ran into the alley,

"I'll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron!" he called over his shoulder.

…

"Ah, Mr Potter" purred a silky voice as soon as Harry stepped inside the bookshop, "I have been waiting for you. I am Malaki Ponea".

Harry crossed his arms and shifted his weight onto one hip,

"And how were you to know that I was planning a visit? I have not contacted you, I do not know you and I have only used this establishment once and that was by ordering with a fake name, I have never set foot inside this shop." Harry said with curiosity evident in his words

Malaki smiled comfortingly, his feline features contorting into an expression of amusement as he swung his tail behind his legs slowly.

"I did not mean to alarm you, Emerald. I am a seer; I see things which are to intertwine with my life. You are to become a very important ally of the Dark Lord" Malaki told Harry.

Harry grinned happily at the man, he was very likable and Harry had always had a soft spot for cats.

"Well, Malaki, if you have seen me coming, then you must know what I am and what I am looking for" Harry smiled as the man nodded and bounced off behind the well decorated counter. He returned a few minutes later and ushered Harry towards a pair of armchairs facing each other with a table placed between them.

Malaki sat Harry down and placed a small stack of books on the small, brown table. He picked the first up. A large paperback book with the title printed on the front, 'Vampires, Werewolves and Veela: what you shouldn't know'.

Harry took the book from the man and flipped through the pages, finding that there was a sufficient amount of detailed information, placed it to the side and nodded at Malaki.

He reached for the next book a large, leather bound book entitled, 'Lycanthropy: Creatures of the Night'. Harry thought about this one for a moment before shaking his head and placed it on the other side of the table.

Malaki handed him the next book, 'Feeding Habits of the Vampire'. Harry smiled and placed the book next to the first.

The next book was entitled, 'A-Z of Creatures'. This went with the lycanthropy book, it was of no use.

The next, 'The Mating Habits of Dark Creatures', was placed into the pile of books Harry was taking.

The next and final book was clearly not in English, it was a tiny handwritten leather book. Harry found it peculiar that he could understand the writing, until he noticed the tiny silver snake on the front cover. The book was is parseltounge, brilliant.

Harry paid for his purchases, shook Malaki's hand and left the shop. Harry fully intended on going straight to the Leaky Cauldron to meet with the Weasley's and Hermione. But he heard a cry of pain and couldn't help that his hero complex kicked in. He walked down a side street, following the angry voices and occasional cries of pain. He looked around the corner and gasped as he saw a group of large men crowded around a lithe, but undeniably male figure on the ground.

Anger boiled in Harry's blood as he noticed that one of the largest men clutching fabric between his hands and that the figure on the ground was not wearing a shirt. Harry took in the boy's features, high, prominent cheekbones, straight, narrow nose, big, blue eyes and luscious, ruby red lips. The boy's hair was chin length and a bright silvery blonde colour. His skin glowed, this boy was a veela, there was no doubt about that.

And these men did not have noble intentions, they had fallen into the veela's allure and they were willing to take what they wanted from the beautiful creature. Harry was not going to let that happen. He reached towards his waistband and pulled a long, curved knife free from the holster on his hip.

He blurred past the veela's attackers to stand in front of the shivering creature. Harry pulled his cloak from his trousers and wrapped it around the veela. He pick the boy up blurred into a corner of the alley and sat the poor thing down away from the attackers.

Harry turned back to the idiots who had dared to attack the creature.

"Well boys" Harry mocked them, "who dies first?".

The largest man launched himself at Harry; the raven haired creature caught his attacker by the throat and snapped his neck, throwing the body to the floor. The second man ran at him, Harry slashed the man's throat and left him to die. The final man circled him and then sprang, effectively tackling Harry to the ground. Harry rolled them over and stabbed him repeatedly through the heart until he stopped fighting.

Harry stood and tucked his knife back into its holster. He looked to the veela. He was still shaking, but not from cold now so it must have been fear or shock. Harry approached the creature slowly, making noise so that the veela knew he was there. He sat beside the boy and wrapped his arms around the blond. This seemed to be the breaking point for the veela as he turned, clambered into Harry's lap and sobbed his thanks into the raven haired boy's shoulder. Harry's hero complex kicked in again as he cradled the obviously terrified creature into his chest and cooed comforting words into the taller male's ear. Once the veela had calmed down Harry asked him

"Okay, you are a veela, am I correct?" at the other male's nod, Harry continued, "so your family are surely protective of you, so I assume you were not alone by choice?"

The taller male shook his head,

"N-no" he told Harry, "we-we got s-separated and those m-men g-grabbed me and d-dragged me in h-here, and they called me a t-tease and a s-slut" he began sobbing again, "I-I'm n-not a s-slut, Harry, I-I'm n-not".

Harry hugged the other boy closer, "I know you aren't, now did your family arrange somewhere for you all to meet up if you were separated?".

The veela nodded, "the Leaky Cauldron".

…..

Harry entered the pub with the other boy still cradled in his arms and Harry's cloak still wrapped around him. He looked up and spotted the Weasleys and Hermione staring at him in shock. This was understandable seeing as he had just walked into a pub covered in blood wearing a ripped netted vest and slightly dirty leather trousers with a very tired, shirtless veela wrapped in his cloak with his head nestled into the crook of Harry's neck.

He shrugged at the Weasleys and looked around for another family. He spotted them quickly. They were clearly distraught. The female had her head in her hands and the male was twitching ever so slightly. Harry caught the eye of the male and asked with his eyes if he could approach. The man caught sight of the bundle in Harry's eyes and he nodded frantically and tears welled up in his eyes as he woke his wife from her stupor and gestured wildly to their son in Harry's arms. Harry reached the table and sat down. The veela shifted in his arms to sit in his lap with his head still buried in Harry's neck.

"Is he alright?" asked the female.

"Yes, don't worry" Harry replied.

"What happened to him?" asked the male.

"Three men got caught up in your son's veela allure; they attacked him deep in Knockturn Alley. I killed them. He's not hurt but he may be in shock."

The veela's parents nodded and thanked him. Harry smiled,

"Really, It's fine. I really should get back to the Weasleys and Hermione now" Harry said with a gentle smile

The couple nodded.

"I have to go now, okay?" Harry whispered to the veela.

"Okay. Goodbye Harry" the boy said as he made to remove Harry's cloak but the other creature stopped him.

"Keep it" Harry told him, the veela nodded with a tired smile.

Harry stood, still holding the taller boy before putting him down gently to sit in the chair.

"Goodbye Harry" the boy repeated.

Harry chuckled,

"Goodbye Draco" he replied


	5. ...you're a cat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry meets a Death Eater in a cafe.

Chapter five 

"Oh! I've got one!" exclaimed Hermione, "are you scary?".

The group had gone shopping in muggle London after Harry had repeatedly refused to explain why he had gone into Knockturn Alley and why he had returned cradling a traumatized Draco Malfoy.

The Weasley's had decided to go home after a few hours of Harry's version of shopping, going into every shop and never leaving without something. Hermione had immediately started a game of twenty questions concerning his species. Harry had decided to humour the girl and answer them all truthfully.

"Yes" he replied, "well, most people tend to be afraid of my kind".

The pair were currently sitting in a cafe in the heart of London. They had decided to stop for lunch and play their game

"Do you eat like a normal human?" Hermione asked, wondering why Harry hadn't ordered anything.

"No. I can, but I don't need to. I still eat sweets though".

Hermione frowned, "is it necessary for you to feed on anything at all?" she asked.

"Yes." Harry replied. Hermione waited for him to elaborate. When she realised that he wasn't going to tell her anything else, she asked another question.

"Are you considered a dark or light creature?" Harry smirked,

"Dark. Very, very dark, in fact". He answered

"Do you kill unnecessarily?"

"Yes" Harry told her honestly and without hesitation.

Hermione took a deep breath and tried to remember that this was still Harry.

"Why?" she asked.

"My kind are brutal by nature. We lust for pain. We lust for blood and we lust for chaos. I can't help it". He told her.

"How do you become what you are?" Hermione asked, her thirst for knowledge guiding her through her shock at Harry's last answer.

"We have two different categories that my kind can fall into." He told the girl, "There are those of us who were born to be one of us, those who would have come into their inheritance at the age of sixteen. Then there are those of us who were changed into what we are."

"Which one are you?" Hermione asked. Harry smiled,

"Both" he replied.

Hermione raised an eyebrow,

"Explain" she demanded.

"My magic prevented me from fully changing on my sixteenth birthday because it didn't think I would be safe changing when the Dursleys were near. They hated the fact that I was a wizard. Could you imagine if they woke up one morning to find that their freak was even more freakish than they thought it was? They would have killed me!"

Harry was caught in his own little world, reminiscing about his time living with his aunt and uncle. He forgot that Hermione didn't know about the abuse.

"I couldn't handle being what I was, caught between human and inhuman. So Shadow and Dervla convinced one of the other Angels to finish the job. So I was changed. And now I am what I am."

"Killed you?" Hermione's voice broke Harry from his stupor. "Harry. Did they… hurt you?"

It was time to come clean, wasn't it?

"Yes".

"How?" Hermione was furious.

"Starvation. Beatings. Pushing me down the stairs. Lashings. Scarring. Carving words into me. Rape. And that's all just in the two weeks of the summer when I was with them."

Hermione was speechless but this was not the proper place to discuss the revelation anyway. She looked at Harry, his jaw was tight and his hands were clenched into fists.

Hermione frowned and asked another question, deciding to ask a few more light hearted questions

"Who's your hero?" she asked

Harry thought for a moment before answering,

"Nicholas Flammel".

"Why him?" Hermione asked.

"He found immortality without having to become what I am. That's more than worthy of admiration". Harry smiled at her, "well Miss Granger, I do believe you just found out that I am immortal… oops"

Hermione gawped openly at her friend,

"You don't die?" she hissed quietly at him, leaning towards him to ensure that they would not be overheard by anyone else.

Harry smirked,

"Nope. Well, not without one hell of a fight." he told her.

A movement at a corner table caught Harry's eye. A petite girl, a fair few years younger than Harry himself was sitting at a booth in the corner of the café. It was her strategic position which alerted Harry to the fact that she was not there for a mere cup of coffee. Her back was to the wall, preventing an attack from behind, she had a clear view of every person in the room and she had an unobstructed path to the door.

But who was she? Her face was covered by the purple hood of her jacket, though strands of her dark hair peeked out. Her build was lithe but she seemed to hold an aura of power, so she was probably a witch. She held herself as if taught how to do so. Her back was held straight and her shoulders were held back. So if she was a witch she was probably a pureblood who'd been sent to etiquette lessons. She was now looking straight back at Harry with playful, childlike eyes that were a pretty shade of blue, framed by the glasses perched on her nose.

Harry thought for a moment and then stood and walked towards the girl, quieting Hermione's protests with a sharp look. He sat across from the mysterious girl and looked into her eyes.

"Hello"

The girl had a pronounced Irish accent. Her tones seemed to lilt slightly, almost as if she were reading aloud from a poem, not initiating a conversation with a stranger in a café.

"Hello" Harry replied, his voice slightly suspicious.

"Your girlfriend seems worried" the girl broke the thick silence.

Harry looked at her questioningly, the girl pointed to a spot behind Harry. He looked over his shoulder to see Hermione sipping nervously on her drink and darting her eyes to Harry every few seconds. He frowned and looked back to the girl, Hermione really did need to stop stressing, maybe he would teach her some dark magic, and it was strangely relaxing to watch a human writhe in pain.

"She's not my girlfriend" Harry told the stranger.

She smiled flirtatiously and leant across the table,

"Well, in that case" she purred "I'm Shauna"

Harry flinched away from her mentally, but instead he leaned towards her,

"Well in that case" he purred back at the girl "I'm gay...and too old for you."

Shauna's little smile turned into a full blown grin,

"Are you serious?" she quizzed.

Harry nodded.

Shauna studied him,

"Oh", she said, and proceeded to study him for a moment

"Now I see it!" she exclaimed in a childlike manner.

"You see it?" Harry asked her, confused.

"Yes" she replied

Harry waited for her to elaborate on how she could tell but she simply sipped at her hot chocolate and smiled at him.

"You're here alone?" He asked her

"Yes"

"Where are your parents?" Harry was slightly surprised, this girl couldn't even be a teenager yet

"In Hell I'd assume" she replied calmly, draining the last dregs in her cup

Harry smirked, he liked this girl, she was smart judging by the thick book resting at her elbow and she was a slightly sadistic orphan, just like him. Oh yes, Harry liked this girl a lot. That is, he did, until she reached for her cup and her sleeve slipped down her left arm, revealing, pride of place, the dark mark. Then he loved her.

…

Not far away, Draco Malfoy was thinking. He sat on the highest branch of an oak tree and watched his family play like children.

He watched his father run across the garden and tackle his mate to the ground, tickling the other man mercilessly. He watched his mother walk around the garden, arm in arm with a wedding planner. Other people would probably call all three of them weird, but his parents had been forced into their marriage. His father was gay and in a serious relationship with a werewolf and his mother was planning their wedding.

Plus Draco himself was a male veela of which there had only been a handful in the past twenty years. The Malfoy line, however, seemed to have a habit of producing male veela, though it did tend to skip generations at a time.

Adding to the oddness was the fact that he had been in love with another boy for years but hadn't been able to tell him. Draco always knew he would be able to recognise his mate. Maybe it would be his crush, maybe it wouldn't be. Either way, Draco could be happy.

And he was happy. He knew who his mate was. He smiled to himself as he thought of the daring rescue performed by Harry Potter in Knockturn Alley earlier that same day. Harry had fought and killed men three times his size. Draco had sat on the ground and watched the other creature's graceful movements. The flash of sun reflecting off of Harry's bade and then the red of the brutes' blood as they took their dying breath. The ripple of Harry's muscles under his tight shirt and the look of joy and malice in his eyes as the fiends were slain. The feeling of his abdominal muscles pressed against Draco's side as he carried the Veela out of the alley.

Draco hadn't noticed he was in a stupor until a voice broke him out of it.

"Draco?" Lucius called to his son. Draco looked down and smiled. His family weren't weird, they were perfect.

...

"And you are sure of this?"

"I am positive sir" Arthur replied to Dumbledore, "Harry and Hermione are together".

"May I ask how you could tell?" the old man placed a hand into a small bowl on the desk and withdrew a lemon drop. He popped it in his mouth and motioned for Arthur to speak.

"She admitted it sir, Ginny was telling Harry not to worry and that she could make a good enough boyfriend out of him, then Ms Granger came up to him and said, clear as day, that he was a good enough boyfriend already" Arthur took a deep breath and frowned "what are we to do headmaster?"

Dumbledore sighed, his face showing the perfect façade of regret but his eyes twinkling with mirth as he said, "we will continue with our plan of using potions on Mr Potter. But Miss Granger must be taken out of the picture".

…

"None of us mean you any harm!" Shauna exclaimed quickly.

She jerked her arm off of the table to rest at her side. But the damage was done. Hermione sprang from her seat across the room and grabbed the young Death Eater by her throat, pulled her to her feet and straight out the door. Harry gawped for a moment before following. But by the time he got outside they had disappeared.

Harry stood perfectly still outside the café, closed his eyes and listened. He heard the people inside the café debating whether or not to help the girl who had just been removed from the café by her throat; Harry gently pushed against their minds and convinced them all that the girls had in fact, left the building with their arms linked, laughing.

Harry concentrated and swept his awareness out further out. There! Hermione had dragged Shauna into an alleyway. Harry took off running down the street, stopping when he no longer had to reach his enhanced senses out to hear the girls.

"I've already told you!" Harry heard Shauna scream hoarsely as he entered the alley.

Hermione had the girl held against the wall with a hand wrapped around her throat.

"None of us mean you any harm! We only wish to speak with Harry!"

Shauna ran out of breath and shoved Hermione off of her and onto the ground. Shauna sat on the ground to catch her breath before she spoke again,

"How many times do I have to tell you? We only wish to speak with Harry!" she rasped through a sore throat

"Us? We? There are more of you?" Hermione abruptly became panicked, jumped to her feet and drew a dagger from her waistband.

She lunged at Shauna. Harry sprang into action; intercepting Hermione in mid flight, he seized her tightly around the waist and pushed her against the wall opposite the one Shauna was now leaning heavily against, massaging her throat with a grimace on her face.

"Are you okay? Harry asked Shauna

She smiled lightly and pushed her glasses up to sit more securely on her nose. As she did this her hood fell back off of her face fully to reveal a pair of fluffy, black cats ears protruding from her head, poking out from beneath her hair. She sighed and a defeated look flickered across her face as a black tail worked its way out from underneath her skirt. Harry gaped at the girl.

"Oh my God!... You're a cat" Harry said as he sat Hermione gently on the ground and moved closer to Shauna, reaching out as if to touch her ear, then thinking better of it and letting his hand drop.

"Erm, yes, a little bit" Shauna replied with an awkward cough

Harry immediately launched into questions.

"Can you move them?"

"Yes" she proved this with a twitch of her ears

"Do they hurt?"

"No more than it hurts you to have hands"

"Can you retract them?"

"No, these are here to stay"

"How did you get them?"

"Transfiguration accident"

"...do you have more body hair than normal?"

"NO! Don't be disgusting!"

This went on for a while; Harry asking any question that popped into his head and Shauna answering them with relative patience. Until Hermione sprang into action again and launched from her position on the pavement and slammed into Shauna as Harry was distracted.

She slashed the dagger across the girl's chest. Shauna let out a pained shriek and fell to the ground. Harry pushed Hermione away immediately. Slamming his friend against the wall of the alleyway and holding her there. She fought against his hold, stabbing at Harry blindly with the dagger in her rage. Luckily, the dagger was not silver and didn't even scratch him. He pushed her harder against the wall as Hermione finally calmed.

Harry watched as the haze lifted off of Hermione's eyes and she stared at him in horror.

"Harry! Oh my God Harry! I stabbed you! I-I can't believe it! We have to get you to a hospit…" she trailed off as she noticed that he wasn't bleeding as all, or even cut for that matter.

"Oh my." She whispered, "you're a- you're not" she stuttered but couldn't finish her thought before she fell unconscious.

Harry sighed as her full weight flopped into his arms. He sat her on the ground and stepped away from her to check on the other girl.

He was almost beside her when the scent hit him. She was bleeding. He gritted his teeth as the waves of bloodlust rolled over him. He gritted his teeth and walked closer to her. She was bleeding but he couldn't tell how much. She could be badly hurt.

"Shauna?" Harry called quietly, unsure if the girl was even conscious. A small cough from the collapsed figure caused Harry to run towards her.

He gently rolled her over and could feel his mouth watering at the blood smeared across her collar bones. He noticed that it was still pumping heavily through the wound. He could take it. It would be incomprehensibly easy. She wouldn't be missed. Tom had hundreds of minions. What was one little hybrid?

He bent his head closer to the gash and inhaled. He felt his pupil's enlarge and his fangs descend. Yes, she wouldn't be missed. No one would see him do it either. The humans in the café thought there was no issue, no fight, nothing wrong. Hermione was unconscious. And who else was there?

"There's me, Harry" whispered a tiny voice in the back of his mind.

Harry jerked away from the Death Eater and snapped his head up to look around. There was no one there. But he had heard the voice.

"You aren't mad, Harry" the voice giggled and Harry found himself entranced by the sound.

The voice was familiar and undoubtedly male, but there was something about it. Something that drew Harry in. Something irresistible.

"Who are you?" Harry found himself asking aloud.

"All you need to know is that I'm yours, my mate" and as the sultry tones faded into nothingness, Harry found he had the strength not to hurt the feline girl.

"Shauna? Come on, please wake up. Come on, open your eyes for Emerald" Harry took off his shirt and balled it up. He pressed it hard into the girls wound, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. The blood flow was increasing if anything.

Harry had no choice. He knew that the Dark Lord would figure out what he was in no time at all and once he did realise, Harry would be at his mercy. His life would be in Tom's hands. But he had no choice.

Harry pushed Shauna's sleeve back and pressed a finger to her dark mark, noticing as he did that his scar didn't even twinge.

…..

"Harry Potter" the name was spoken more as a statement than a question

The Dark Lord marvelled at the boy. He had changed immensely since their last meeting. His physical appearance was much more appealing. His sickly pale skin had taken on an olive tone; he had gained muscle, enough to be very sexy but not enough for him to look overly muscled. He had very pronounced abdominal muscles plainly shown by his bare chest. His hair was longer, brushing his shoulders and streaked with a multitude of colours, somehow not overpowering the natural black of his tresses. Harry Potter looked nothing like a Potter.

Harry's personality had obviously changed as well. Voldemort would have never thought Potter would ever dare to venture into Malfoy Manor unaccompanied by at the very least, an Order member. And yet, here he was, standing in the ballroom of said Manor, with no company but the Dark Lord and a Death Eater either side of him with their wands pointed at him. The girls whom Harry had arrived with had been removed from the boy and taken to the infirmary as soon as they had entered the ballroom.

The boy seemed unfazed by the two wands trained on his head even though he had no wand to protect himself with. The Death Eaters had found him with nothing but the clothes on his back, which consisted of only a pair tight leather trousers, a pair of black trainers and a strip of fabric tied tightly around his arm just above his elbow.

And on top of all of that, the boy was scarred, vey scarred. He had a long, pink, puckered scar running diagonally the length of his face, across his collarbones, stopping just before it marred his chest as well. That was nothing compared to the scars smattered across his chest. Cruel slurs dominated the majority of the boy's chest and some disappeared down his waistband, making Tom think that they were not only on his chest.

Potter's whole demeanour had changed. The child clearly had an attitude. He stood with his hip cocked to one side, one arm on his hip and one running continuously through his long hair. He looked every inch a teenage model.

"Harry Potter" the Dark Lord repeated, completely and utterly baffled.

Harry smirked, "yes, well actually, I tend to go by Emerald most of the time now."

He waved his hand nonchalantly in the air and flashed an open mouthed smile.

Tom gasped as he caught a flash of white, sharpened canines. The boy wasn't human

"Well, well, well" ?Tom stood from his throne, "it seems as though the wizarding world's Golden Boy isn't very golden at all"

Harry smirked and looked up through his lashes and Tom found himself amazed at the vibrant, unearthly green colour of the boy's eyes. Oh yes, the Gryffindor Golden boy was in no way golden.

"Well, Emerald" the Dark Lord smirked at the name, "I do believe I have a proposition for you"

"Oh?" Harry's curiosity spiked and he raised an eyebrow, "and what would that be?"

Tom leaned forward with a smirk on his reptilian face "I am afraid that I will have to test your loyalties" he told Harry.

…

Harry sat in the stone chair, he looked at the floor and then up at the people in front of him. Shauna stood by the door with a bandage wrapped around her chest, when she saw him looking she shot him a grin and a thumbs up. Hermione was standing off in the corner on her own, too terrified to even notice that Harry was looking at her. Severus Snape was standing in front of a bubbling cauldron, spooning the clear truth serum into a small vial; he looked up and flashed Harry a reassuring smile. Tom Riddle was behind Harry, he could feel the warmth and weight of the older man's hand on his shoulder.

Draco Malfoy entered the room with his father at his side. The elder Malfoy walked to stand beside Hermione and handed the girl a book. He smiled when she looked at the cover of the book, darted her eyes up to Harry and visibly relaxed before leaning against the wall and opening the book. Lucius sank down to sit beside her on the ground and appeared to read the book with her, pointing at the page at regular intervals, Hermione nodding excitedly when he did.

Draco, however, stopped in the middle of the room and looked at Harry with adoration in his gorgeous blue eyes. He caught sight of Tom's hand and his expression immediately hardened. He glared at Tom without fear until Harry felt the man's hand leave his shoulder. Draco moved as close to Harry as he could possibly get without sitting in the other boys lap. And once he looked into Harry's entrancingly green eyes he couldn't help himself and fell into Harry's lap, sitting with his legs draped across Harry's, his back flush with Harry's chest and the side of face nuzzled into Harry's neck. Shauna giggled and shot the blushing Harry another thumbs up.

Harry smirked and looked at Draco with a raised eyebrow. The boy seemed to sense his gaze as he looked up and blushed. As he got a proper look at him, Harry noticed that the other boy had changed.

Draco's features had always been aristocratic and attractive. But now they were much more refined, sharper and well, quite perfect. The boy had shrunk too; he had always been taller than Harry, but now, even when he wasn't standing, Harry could tell that Draco had gotten taller, much taller. His feet dangled right over the edge if the chair to rest on the floor as he sat in Harry's lap. And, what was that? He could feel something large and sturdy through the fabric of the blonds' shirt.

Harry looked up to see that everyone else in the room was preoccupied. The adults were all gathered around the cauldron, Hermione was engrossed in her new book and Shauna was… asleep.

"Ahh, so master has the Potter boy"

Harry jumped at the sound and looked down. Nagini had slithered into the room to rest at the foot of Harry's stone chair and was now looking at him in what he could only describe as an inquisitive look in her eyes. Draco ducked down to retrieve the snake, giving Harry a vey good view of his arse, and a view of a few pure white feathers protruding from the bottom of his shirt. Draco had wings.

While Draco settled back into Harry's chest and cradled the hissing snake to his chest, Harry snuck a hand under the other boy's shirt and stroked one finger down a pure white wing. The effect was instant; Draco let out a strangled gasp and nuzzled his head into Harry's neck. Harry absent-mindedly stroked the boy's wings until Severus straightened up and announced that the potion was ready.

Harry withdrew his hand from Draco's shirt and sat up straighter, ignoring Draco's obvious disappointment as the blond's face fell. He was obviously enjoying what Harry assumed was like a back massage. He buried a hand into Draco's hair, gently scratching at his scalp, causing him to smile again. Harry chuckled and looked up at the other people in the room.

Tom was smothering chuckles, Severus was smiling happily, and Lucius was bouncing on the balls of his feet and clapping silently. Harry giggled at the man's foolishness and buried his face in Draco's hair to hide his amusement.

"If I may interrupt this photo album worthy moment" Severus drawled from behind the cauldron.

He walked to Harry and presented him with the vial full of veritasirum. Harry grinned,

"Cheers", he said as he knocked it back and grimaced at the slight burn the liquid left in his throat. He felt his mouth numb and his thoughts slow down. The potion making him susceptible to any questions.

"I'll go first", Tom said, "Where do your loyalties lie?"

"I am loyal to whoever will keep my mate, my friends and I safe" Harry replied in a monotone.

"Okay, that's that sorted then", exclaimed Lucius happily, "what is your favourite colour?" the other wizards looked at him strangely, what a strange question.

"Sky blue" Harry replied

"Why?"

"It's the colour Draco's eyes are when he's daydreaming during Potions lessons"

Hermione and Lucius cooed and Draco blushed while Snape scowled at the though of Draco not paying attention in his class.

"What are you?" Draco asked

"I'm a vampire" Harry told him, unconcerned

"Well that makes sense!" Hermione and Draco exclaimed in unison.

"This could be fun!" it seemed Hermione had finally lifted her eyes away from the book, she marked her page and moved closer to Harry, "what…"

Just as Hermione was about to ask her question a loud yawn rang through the room as Shauna woke up. She stretched her limbs and cracked her knuckles before standing and moving to stand beside Lucius and they linked arms.

"Wow! How did you get those scars?" Shauna asked, pointing to the words all over the raven haired boy.

Harry sniffed and looked down, "my uncle" he finally croaked, "the idiots at the Order decided that he had to be told about Sirius' death. They told him to go easy on me!" he growled, getting angry.

Draco purred and buried his head in Harry's neck. Harry's tense muscles immediately relaxed and he ran a hand through Draco's hair.

Tom decided to press the matter, "finish your story" he demanded.

Harry obeyed, "after they told him that the supposed serial killer I'd been threatening him with was dead, Vernon became enraged, he beat me, carved the word freak into my chest and killed my owl, Hedwig"

"Was this the only instance?" Tom's eyes were full of anger and Harry flinched away from the man as much as the high backed chair would allow.

"No" Harry whimpered, as though afraid of being struck

Tom noticed the boy's terror and looked pleadingly at Draco. The blonde Veela nodded and Tom stepped forward. He dropped to his knees in front of Harry and rested one hand on the young vampire's cheek. Harry, not used to the comforting contact, flinched a bit before he leant into the hand and relaxed.

"I apologise Harry" Tom told the boy, stroking a thumb back and forth across Harry's cheek, "I was angry at your inept Aunt and Uncle".

Harry nodded and took a deep breath to calm himself.

"Right" he said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself of that fact, "right, not me. Not angry with me".

"That's right Harry", Tom told him, "I will never be angry with you without cause".

He pulled Harry into a tight hug with Draco squashed a little bit between them. Harry tensed again for a moment before lifting his arms to wrap around Tom and Draco. Lucius and Shauna cooed and joined in on the hug, followed by a nervous Hermione and a grinning Severus.

Harry had had three families. The first had been his parents, though he had never gotten to know them. The second had been aunt, Uncle and cousin. They hadn't turned out to be much of a family though, except for Dudley. The third and final family had been the Fallen Angels, though he had always felt slightly out of place there, plus, with Pierce out to get him and Hermione, there was no way he could stay there, though he refused to live with certain members of the gang.

But, as Harry was wrapped up in a warm embrace with a gorgeous blond boy, Draco's father, a new feline friend, his sister, a powerful dark wizard and his potions master, Harry thought that, maybe, just maybe, he could find his new family here.


	6. The Order aren't the best spies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's life among the Death Eaters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nope, still don't own Harry Potter

Chapter Six 

Harry was getting used to living among the Death Eaters. He would wake up late, which was a welcomed luxury seeing as he had always been forced to wake early in Privet Drive to clean, wake early at Hogwarts for lessons and wake early with the Fallen Angels to train. But here, he always woke when he pleased and always had Nagini curled up at his feet and a blonde Veela curled up on his chest. Harry never had any memory of the duo being there before he went to sleep though… curious.

Harry looked down at Draco's sleeping face. He'd thought his schoolboy crush on the blond boy would have gone away. Harry had a mate out here somewhere, so shouldn't that be the only relationship that mattered? But the crush had only gotten worse. Harry blushed when Draco spoke to him and was sure that of Draco told him to jump out the window, he'd do it.

Harry stretched and arched his back slightly, disrupting the creatures currently using him as a pillow. Draco tightened his grip on Harry's shoulders and wrapped his legs tighter around Harry's hips. Nagini merely shifted her scaly body to wrap around the entirety of Harry's legs. He was firmly pinned down.

Harry laid there for quite some time, enjoying the warmth, but soon enough his thirst was made known. It had been at least a week since he had fed and it didn't bode well for a vampire as young as he was, but he didn't dare try to push them off as he was not yet used to the amount of strength he had and didn't want to hurt them. A masked Death Eater walked past the open door.

"You!" Harry snapped at the Death Eater, baring his fangs and hissing menacingly.

The Death Eater stuttered embarrassingly and turned to run.

"STOP!" Harry commanded.

The man's eyes, visible through the mask, glazed over as he walked slowly into the room against his will. Harry smirked,

"Get them off of me, gently!" he gestured to Draco and Nagini.

"Wingardium Leviosa"

Harry felt the weight on his chest and legs disappear. He rolled out of the bed and looked up from the floor. Draco and Nagini were suspended in midair, still sleeping. Harry gestured to the Death Eater who let the pair of creatures down gently onto the bed. They immediately curled into each other to make up for Harry's absence. Harry chuckled, released the Death Eater from his control and dismissed the disorientated man from the room.

Harry stood from the floor and walked to the large wardrobe in the corner of the room. He withdrew a black robe and a white Death Eaters mask from within it. He dressed quickly, tucked the pair into the bed and left the room.

Harry walked through the castle, nodding to the occasional occupant of the manor who passed him. He walked through the twisting maze of corridors until he reached the huge stone archway leading to the dungeon. He hurried gracefully down the stone staircase and stood in front of a pair of large, wooden doors. He composed himself and walked into the main room of the dungeon. The stone room was cold, high ceilinged and full of potential Death Eaters.

"Ah Emerald, how lovely to see you" hissed the Dark Lord from the middle of the circle of fresh meat.

Harry walked to his Lord and knelt at the older man's feet, bending to kiss the hem of his robe.

"My Lord" Harry greeted the man reverently before standing at the man's left side.

"This is Emerald" Voldemort told the newcomers, placing a hand firmly on Harry's shoulder, "Emerald is in charge of creature recruitment and espionage missions, isn't that right, Emerald?"

Harry nodded and kept his face blank beneath his mask.

The Dark Lord stepped away from Harry and walked around the inside of the circle of possible Death Eaters. "Emerald will train you on use of defensive and offensive spells on an attacker"

Harry nodded again to confirm this statement and fought to keep his bloodlust in control.

"How will he do that, My Lord?" questioned a recruit about Harry's age who was either very brave or very stupid.

Tom's red eyes turned immediately to the young man.

"Good question" hissed the Dark Lord. Harry straightened slightly, it was time.

"I believe you shall be a good candidate for a demonstration" Harry hissed, looking to his Lord for permission. Tom nodded and Harry ripped his mask from his face and crouched into an attack position.

The recruits went absolutely mad, screaming his birth name and spitting swears at him, assuming he had infiltrated the ranks as a spy for the light. The man whom had questioned Harry stepped forward, ready to win his Lord's favour by destroying his greatest threat. Harry chuckled darkly and threw a punch with enough force to shatter a bone at the man's chest. The recruit was thrown back, but quickly used a quick cushioning charm to stop him from injuring himself as he hit the wall. Harry was impressed with the quick casting, but the recruit's wand was snapped against the wall. Undeterred, he ran towards Harry and tried to throw a punch of his own, but Harry caught the fist and used the momentum against him, kicking the other man's feet out from under him and pinning him to the floor.

"He fails" Tom stated simply, he nodded to Harry.

Harry snarled happily and slashed the terrified man's throat open with his sharp, claw-like fingernails, latched his mouth over the wound and sucked deeply, eager to drag every drop of blood possible from the human. He felt the recruit's struggles become feeble until they stopped all together as he fell into unconsciousness. Harry kept lapping and sucking at the wound until it became apparent that nothing more was going to bleed from the corpse. He pushed himself off of the body and sat cross legged on the stone floor of the dungeon, licking his hands and lips clean.

Voldemort chuckled at the boy's antics, running a hand fondly through the rainbow coloured locks of hair, contrasting marvellously with the pale skin and black clothes.

"That", Voldemort warned the remaining recruits, "is what happens if you fail me".

Harry, finished with his treat, stood and addressed the recruits, "you will all attempt to keep me at bay, one at a time, mind you. If you cannot…" Harry let the statement hang unfinished and looked pointedly at the body on the floor.

"So! Who's first then?" he asked cheerfully, eager to completely quench his thirst.

One by one, all of the recruits stepped forward and all but four were feasted upon by Harry.

Tom and Harry stood amongst the bodies as the survivors bowed to them and left.

"Have you had your fill, Harry?" Tom asked the young vampire, who was, once again, licking himself clean. The boy looked up with huge, cute, and obviously surprised, green eyes, he smiled sheepishly as he realised he had been caught.

Harry giggled, "Yeah Tom, I'm done"

Tom smiled lovingly at the boy and chuckled, "I shall have the house elves clean up then, you may go, Harry"

Harry stood, bowed and grinned to Tom before leaving.

Tom smiled to himself, "I always did wish to have a son" he mused quietly, "even if the boy is slightly touched"

….

Upstairs, Harry was standing outside Draco's room, using his hypersensitive hearing to listen to the blonde speak with his father. Sometimes he just couldn't help himself.

"Draco!" hissed Lucius, "you simply must tell him!"

"I cannot Father" Draco whispered back miserably. Harry frowned, who were they talking about?

"Oh?" Lucius questioned quietly, "and why not?"

Harry heard Draco sniff tearfully and fought the urge to burst through the door and pull the blonde boy into a hug.

"I don't think he likes me" Draco finally said sadly.

Harry couldn't believe this! How could anyone not like Draco? He was kind, gorgeous, funny, gorgeous, amazing, gorgeous and absolutely bloody gorgeous!

"Draco" Lucius whispered tenderly to his son, "he is your mate; he is destined to love you! He's already said he loves you! why can't you just believe him?"

"I do not wish for my mate to love me because he has to, father" Draco replied, "I want him to love me because I am me!"

Harry could barely breathe, Draco had a mate? No! Why couldn't he have Harry? Why wasn't Harry his mate? Why couldn't Harry get anything he wanted? Everything he wanted was taken from him! His idiot parents had to die for their stupid, flawed cause, his childhood was ripped away from him by his own family! He had to give up his humanity to keep his life and now he would never have a chance with Draco. Harry tried to swallow his disappointment and push down the bitter tears, but he just couldn't keep them at bay.

Harry turned and ran down the hall, tears streaming down his cheeks and sobs ripping their way from his throat. He got to his empty bedroom and collapsed onto his unmade bed, sobbing loudly and wailing into his pillow. He did this for quite some time until he heard a soft, high pitched, female voice quietly singing from down the hall. Getting louder as through the singer was walking towards his room.

Harry quickly choked down his tears, not willing to be seen in a moment of weakness. He listened seriously to the song. The lyrics told of unrequited love and longing. Harry scowled, willing the sing to leave him in peace. But the singing only got louder as the woman got closer to him.

As the woman's last, haunting note dissipated into the air, Harry lost the fight to keep his tears at bay and he began sobbing brokenly.

"You should never fight to keep tears locked away you know", stated a voice from the door behind Harry, "tears are not a weakness, they show that we are loved and that we are capable of love, they show that we care and that we are cared for".

Harry thought about these words as he continued to sob. A warm hand began to rub soothing circles into his back. He looked up into the pretty, dark eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange.

She smiled sadly at him before she pulled him into a tight, motherly hug. Harry nuzzled his face into the woman's neck and inhaled, she smelled like chocolate and strawberries. Harry let another sob out in her comforting embrace.

"That's it, Love" Bellatrix whispered softly, "let it out"

And so he did, Harry cried and sobbed and choked the story of Draco's mate out in the moments when he was able to speak through his sorrow. Bellatrix whispered comforting words to him and once he had calmed down, she summoned a house elf.

"Binky, bring us as many types of sweets as you can, my hair products, my make up and my clothes", she demanded, combing the fingers on one of her hands through Harry's hair.

Two hours later, Harry and Bellatrix were lounging on his bed in their pyjamas, junk food scattered around them, make up floating in front of them, Bellatrix's clothes draped over an armchair and the wall facing them had been transfigured into a giant mirror. Harry swiped a small brush into a palate of black eye shadow, reached out to Bellatrix and brushed the colouring onto her eyelid. He leant back to make sure that both eyes were even and nodded to himself.

Bellatrix instructed Harry to close his eyes. Once he complied, she applied a thick layer of black eyeliner, then mascara and then applied a huge amount of sparkling silver eye shadow to his eyelid.

She giggled with delight at the effect it had on his eyes, they looked huge, cute and even greener, if that was even possible. Harry grinned and shook his head affectionately at the woman's excitement, she was childlike and maternal at the same time, and it was an amazing combination, especially if she was with Harry, who was just as childlike and extremely flamboyant. Harry felt a slight twinge, knowing that this woman had killed Sirius, but he couldn't bring himself to hate her for it.

Harry waved his hand at the wizarding wireless on his bedside table, The Weird Sisters began blaring from the small, wooden box. Bellatrix jumped off of the bed and danced her way to Harry's wardrobe, pulling out a few items of clothing. Harry smiled and walked over to the armchair covered with all of Bellatrix's clothes.

He rifled through them until he found a pair of black, stiletto ankle boots, a sparkly silver mini dress and a pair of black fishnets. He gathered them all into his arms and turned to hand them to Bellatrix.

She grinned, took them from him and pointed to his bed. Harry burst out laughing. There, on his bed was a pair of acid green shorts which would show the majority of his legs, black fishnets, a black corset which would show almost all of his back and a pair of muggle converse trainers.

Harry grinned, "bloody brilliant!" he exclaimed, grabbing the witch into a hug. She giggled and swatted him away after a moment.

"Go get dressed, Love, we'll show Draco what he's missing!" she encouraged the vampire with a wink.

Harry nodded and offered her the room to get dressed in, claiming that he would use the bathroom. He took a few minutes to dress then a few minutes to tease his hair until the multi coloured strands were waving to brush his shoulders.

Bellatrix smiled at the boy's retreating back. De had never thought she'd be comforting the Potter brat, the very by she had tried to kill several times. But, this child wasn't the same, he was a vampire. He was one of her kind. And she couldn't help but feel protective.

Harry emerged from the bathroom to find Bellatrix pulling her shoes on, she had obviously used a straightening charm on her own hair, as it was smooth and falling gently to her lower back.

"Wow!" Chorus two disembodied voices

Bellatrix and Harry both looked at the door. There were two little eyeballs on Harry's carpet; they had evidently slithered under the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor. Harry looked at Bellatrix before motioning for her to get onto his bed and stay there. She nodded, pulled her wand out and her eyes followed closely behind him as he crept to the door. He threw it open. The spies froze in horror, as did Harry.

"Erm… alright Mate?"

Harry gaped at the sheepish faces. He stuck his head out the door and looked up and down the corridor. Once he was satisfied that there was no-one to see, he pulled the twins inside.

"Fred? George? What the hell are you two doing here?" Harry asked.

Bellatrix jumped up from the bed, threw a locking curse at the door and pointed her wand at the ginger twins. Harry placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Bellatrix looked at him for a moment before lowering her wand and sitting down again.

"Well? What are you doing here?" Harry asked the twins again.

"Well, Mate-" George started.

"The order told us that you were in trouble-" Fred continued

Harry snarled at the mention of the organisation.

"Yeah, Mate. They told us you were here against your will!" George exclaimed with Fred nodding alongside him.

"So they had us come here-" Fred said

"To break you out but-" George interrupted

"We can see that you are perfectly at home-" Fred attempted to take control of the conversation

"With the Death Eaters-" George thwarted his attempt

"And your scars-" Fred continued

"Which are-" George said

"Absolutely bloody wicked!" they both finished.

Harry and Bellatrix took a moment to decipher the statement before Harry nodded, showing that he understood.

"They told you I was here against my will?" he asked the twins.

They both nodded, "and Dumbledore asked us to give you this" they said together as George pulled a letter from his pocket. Harry turned the thick parchment envelope to see the Hogwarts seal.

"How does he expect me to get to Hogwarts if, as far as he knows, I'm 'here against my will'?" Harry asked the identical gingers.

"Oh!" Fred exclaimed, digging through his pockets.

"He told us to give you this too" George continued as Fred pulled something out of his robes, he held it out to Harry. It was a necklace, a long golden chain with a large uncut diamond on the end. The diamond had no particular shape but seemed to sparkle slightly in the dim sunlight bleeding into the room through the windows. Harry looked at Bellatrix in question. She shook her head and motioned for him to use his wand.

He pulled the thin piece of wood from his sleeve and pointed it at the necklace. The piece of jewellery lifted from Fred's hand and floated in midair. Bellatrix drew her own wand. She made slashing movements with her wand at the necklace. The twins looked on nervously. What if they had almost given Harry a cursed necklace?

Bellatrix suddenly lowered her wand and stepped back. She looked up at Harry to report her findings.

"It was under a mild tracing charm, which I have disabled and a portkey spell leading directly to King's Cross Station, I left that one intact as it is being monitored. The necklace is Goblin made and rare, it also makes it very unique to each creature who will ever own it" Bellatrix told the young vampire.

"How is it unique to each owner?" Harry asked.

"Not each owner, Harry. The owner must be a creature"

"Oh, but what does it do?" Harry inquired

Bellatrix smirked slightly sadistically and motioned to the still suspended necklace.

"See for yourself" she encouraged.

Harry looked at the twins. They both glanced at each other and shrugged in unison. Harry took a deep breath and grabbed the necklace. He felt the diamond heat up and change shape. Suddenly, the heat of the diamond spread up his arm and across his chest. Soon enough, the heat was consuming his whole body, but then it all pulled back and concentrated onto his back. Harry grunted and fell to his knees as the burning became more intense, as if there was a sheet of silver pressed against his back.

Then, it stopped. All of it stopped. The burning, the pain even the heat in the necklace stopped, but his airways closed, he couldn't breathe. Harry collapsed to lie on the ground; he panted harshly and tried to work up the strength to stand with no breath getting into his body. He got to his knees before he collapsed again. He felt two sets of hands catch him before he fell. They picked him up from the floor and carried him to his bed, they lay him down gently and he felt the bed sink as the other occupants of the room sat down beside him.

He heard them speaking as if through cotton wool as he lay there panting. He felt the necklace being pried from his hand and his head being lifted up as the chain was placed around his neck. All at once everything came back to him. His energy returned, his hearing was restored and his breath whooshed back into his lungs.

He greedily gulped down lungful after lungful of air. He looked up at the twins, who he assumed were the ones who carried him to the bed.

"Thanks" Harry croaked.

The twins nodded and rubbed his back as he caught his breath. Harry put a hand up to rub his neck and felt the chain around his neck. But it was tight around his neck, not uncomfortably tight or tight enough to cut off his breathing again but tight enough that he could tell it was there.

He sat there for another moment before Bellatrix hauled him to his feet. He looked at her questioningly, but she just pointed him towards his mirror. He looked at his own reflection. His eyes were immediately drawn to the glittering necklace. The diamond had morphed into a small pair of intricate wings. He stared at them in awe. They were beautiful. Bellatrix giggled behind him and wrapped her arms around his shoulder.

"Wait until you see your back!" she whispered excitedly in his ear, lips almost touching him.

Harry looked at her in question, but she just giggled and tapped the frame of the mirror. The glass shimmered for a moment before the image melted away and another dripped in from the frame.

This one was a view of his back; only, it wasn't his back… was it? The image was wearing his black corset, had his skin tone and he could see his colourful hair swept over one of the image's shoulders. But his back certainly did not have a large pair of wings burned into it.

Harry reached behind him and watched as the arm appeared in the reflection of the back. Harry waved his hand back and forth a little bit and gasped as the reflection did the same. It was his back. He spun on his heels quickly and glared at Bellatrix.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

Bellatrix lifted a hand to her heart, "who? Me? I did nothing, Love. The necklace is an ancient artefact, as I said… or implied… a little bit. It was made to show creatures who their mates are." She told him honestly.

Harry ran a hand through his long hair, "how do I get it off?" he asked.

Bellatrix bit her lip and frowned slightly, "that's the thing, Harry… You don't" she told Harry.

Harry was dumbfounded, "Excuse me? 'I don't'? What do you mean 'I don't'?" he asked, nervously anticipating the answer.

Bellatrix kicked her foot against the carpet and wrung her hands out. She took a deep breath before looking up at Harry, "I mean that the necklace doesn't come off until you have found and accepted your mate".

The twins looked at each other before settling into the bed a little bit more. George transfigured two large bottles of butterbeer from two pieces of lint stuck to his robes and Fred transfigured a huge bowl of popcorn from a handful of puking pastilles. They lounged on the bed and ate slowly as they watched the drama unfold.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU GAVE ME A NECKLACE THAT WON'T. COME. OFF?" Harry screamed at Bellatrix.

"I WAS TRYING TO HELP YOU!" Bellatrix screamed back ferociously.

Fred and George looked at each other. That was not the right thing to say, Harry never liked needing help.

Harry's face fell and became cold as he glared at Bellatrix.

"I'm sorry you think I'm not strong enough to deal with my own problems" he said cuttingly.

Bellatrix shook her head vigorously, "that's not what I meant, Love!"

Harry shook his head, tears racing down his cheeks, "I know, I just don't know what to do Bellatrix! Maybe my mate would be better off without me… maybe everybody would" he wailed brokenly.

Bellatrix gasped in horror and pulled the boy into her arms. Fred and George looked at each other for a split second before abandoning their treats and rushing to Harry's side. They each tapped Bellatrix on one of her shoulders. She looked around at them and they looked at her pleadingly, gesturing to Harry, then back at themselves.

Bellatrix bit her lip in deliberation for a moment before nodding and passing the sobbing vampire over into the arms of the other two boys.

Harry tensed for a moment before the warmth of the arms surrounding him sunk into him and he relaxed and sagged willingly into the cradle of comfort the twins had created.

"Now, now Harry", George stated softly into the boy's left ear.

"That's no way to talk!" Fred scolded from his right.

"What would we do without you?" George asked rhetorically.

"We'd die, that's what we'd do!" Fred answered anyway.

"And Hermione? She thinks of you as a brother, Mate" George told Harry

"Yeah, Mate. She's been worried sick since you sent her to the Burrow!" Fred informed helpfully.

"That's right!" George continued, "She said something about you being afraid for her safety here!"

"Yeah, something about not trusting some of the extremist purebloods just yet" Fred commented.

"And our Mum! You're like a bloody… what is it now Fred? Twentieth son? How many sons does she have?" George exclaimed

Harry giggled tearfully from the twin's arms. Fred and George smile at how cute the sound was.

"I don't know George. But how ever many brothers we have, Mum thinks of you as another one, Harry! ...Probably one of her favourites actually …George? Do we count as two brothers or one?" Fred asked, quite seriously.

Harry laughed again, a little less tearfully this time.

"I think we count as one Fred. Seeing as nobody ever asks for Fred or George. It's always Fred and George. Maybe we should change it to Gred and be done with it!" George decided.

Harry giggled again, loudly and clearly this time, no longer crying.

"Oi! Why not Forge?" Fred objected.

"Because Forge is a stupid name!" George replied heatedly.

"As opposed to Gred?" Fred supplied incredulously.

"…Touché. Perhaps it would be best if we remained Fred and George" George relented.

Harry laughed again. The twins took it as a good sign.

"And Percy too!" George decided to continue.

Harry looked up at him, confusion clear in his eyes and tear tracks still shining on his cheeks.

"Percy?" Harry asked

"Of course, Mate! How the bloody hell did you think you never got in trouble? Percy was constantly bailing you out and calling in favours!" Fred clarified.

Harry sniffed and rubbed at his eye with his fist,

"Really?" he asked the twins.

"Really!" they chorused together.

Harry smiled, Percy didn't seem to like very many people and he was one of them!

"And even the bloody Death Eaters seem to like you!" Fred exclaimed

"Yeah Mate! You've got Bellatrix Lestrange dressing you up! ...are you sure you aren't here against your will?" George continued

"Blink one for yes, twice for no!" Fred whispered jokingly.

Harry threw his head back and let out a bark of laughter, then looked at Fred and began blinking in rapid succession.

"…I have no idea what that meant" Fred informed the young vampire.

"Neither do I" Harry confessed with a laugh.

"Well then! Now that the tears and self consciousness have faded, I believe we have quite a bit to catch up on!" George declared, eyeing Harry's scars.

Harry nodded and squeezed the twins once more before pulling away from them and leading the way to his bed. Bellatrix squeezed his shoulder comfortingly as the trio sat down.

Harry looked at the twins, "what would you like to know?" he asked the ginger duo.

"Well, Mate-" George began

"Where did you disappear to?" Fred asked

"Yeah, Harry! Dumbledore said you just up and left your aunt and uncle's house!" George continued.

Harry ground his teeth together, "up and left? Up and left! I was abused in that house! I was raped in that house! I was very nearly killed in that house! By the time I got out of there I was disfigured and so badly hurt that I almost had to be carried when Dudley and I 'up and left'! I was so close to being dead that I had to have my humanity stripped from me! I think I was perfectly entitled to 'up and leave'!"

"YOU WERE WHAT!" the twins screamed in unison

"I can't believe the nerve of that old coot!" George exclaimed

"What else did he say?" Harry asked

"He said you threatened your family with magic, vandalised private property and fled the house with Dudley Dursley as a hostage!" Fred replied

"I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL CUT HIS EYES OUT AND USE THEM AS OLIVES IN A MARTINI! I'LL BURN DOWN HIS PRECIOUS SCHOOL! I'LL USE HIS BEARD AS A BLOODY SKIPPING ROPE!" Bellatrix screamed furiously.

Harry sat grinding his teeth together. Dumbledore would pay, he was sure of it.

"Would you like to hear what really happened?" Harry asked the twins, surprisingly calm.

They both nodded their ginger heads.

"I'll go and let you have your privacy" Bellatrix said, she knew it would be hard for Harry to relive this to large amounts of people at the same time.

Harry gave her a thankful look as she left and took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

"I can't even remember when it started. It's been happening since I could remember. I was woken early by my aunt Petunia, I cooked, I cleaned, I served them, I ate only what they didn't want and then, once my duties for the day were completed, I was locked in my cupboard again until morning" He told them

"Your cupboard?" George asked, afraid of the answer.

"Yes, my cupboard. Freaks don't get bedrooms… or even beds" Harry said as though he were speaking of the weather.

"You didn't have a bed?" Fred asked, pity and anger clear in his voice

"Well, I was in the cupboard until I was about twelve, then I was given a bedroom, then I was put back in the cupboard again and I slept on the floor of the cupboard under the stairs" Harry informed the twins.

"Good Lord! Bloody muggles! They have no sense of right and wrong!" George fumed.

"Right Mate, carry on" Fred encouraged, eager to hear just how badly he would have to hurt these muggles.

"Right, well on my third day back in Privet Drive, your father and Mad Eye turned up at the front door, they told my uncle that Sirius had died and that I would need comfort and that they should, and I quote this directly, 'go easy on me'. Well, as soon as they left, the proverbial shit hit the equally proverbial fan. Vernon went berserk. He chased Dudley and I upstairs. Dudley was going to try to protect me, but I pushed him into a cupboard and locked it. Vernon came in screaming for my owl and he got angry when I refused to tell him where she was. But then she flew in the window, so I tried to keep him away from her but he got angrier after that. He grabbed me by the throat, hauled me off of my feet and killed Hedwig. He held me there with no oxygen until I passed out. When I came around, I was in the cupboard again, Hedwig was dead and I had my first scar." Harry said, he pulled his corset down to show the first scar his uncle had ever given him, the work 'freak' emblazoned on his chest forever.

"Oh bugger me!" George exclaimed

Harry smiled wearily before continuing with his tale,

"Dudley and I have been friends since I was in second year; he tried to help me all the time once the beatings started. Vernon demanded that Dudley beat me as well. But every time he told his father he was going to beat me, he brought me food and treated my wounds as well as he could, but I could never keep the food down, so I just kept losing weight." He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts and push the memories of agonizing hunger pains away.

Fred and George looked at each other in silent understanding; Harry needed them now, no revenge on the muggles. Yet

"Because I didn't have my wand, my magical core started attacking my body to use up some of the magic that needed to be released, and it sped up my malnutrition and made everything more painful. I was in agony. But then something else made it all worse. My uncle started raping me and after a week of it constantly two or three times a day along with three beatings a day, he told Dudley to start raping me too." Harry's voice wavered and wrapped his arms around himself as though he were fighting to keep himself in one piece.

George began to stroke Harry's hair in an attempt to keep him calm. He pushed his head into the other boy's hand like a kitten and took a shuddering breath before continuing.

"Dudley just… snapped a little bit. He got my aunt and uncle out of the house for the night, packed our things and snuck me out. We took the Knight Bus to London and stayed with his gang."

"A Gang? Like a street gang?" Fred asked, astounded at how much Harry must have changed to even be associated with a gang.

"Yeah. The Fallen Angels. We were pretty much a group of nobody's with nowhere else to go. Dudley and I had run away, Dervla has a death sentence hanging over her head, Shadow had the same treatment as I did but by her parents, which I suppose makes it worse, Blade's parents are dead, Ash and Ruby are just duplicates of her, Pierce is wanted for multiple murders in America, Xander is a member of Greyback's pack, Viper is a vampire and Max is Viper's mate. We were all abnormal, Dervla is a veela, Dudley has a little bit of magic in his blood, Shadow, Blade, Max, Ash and Ruby are all witches, Xander is a werewolf, Pierce is a bloody assassin and Viper and I are vampires!" Harry exclaimed.

"You're a vampire?" George questioned

"Oh, yeah. I was too weak to survive without being changed so I was changed as soon as Shadow realised how weak I was, being caught halfway between human and creature. I was forced to give up my humanity to save my life." Harry answered

"What about your sire? Don't young vampires need their sire's blood for a year?" Fred asked

"Yes, but I would've changed anyway. I have creature blood already. Vampirism is my creature inheritance, I should've changed on my sixteenth birthday but my magic prevented it because it would have been too dangerous to change around the Dursleys." Harry clarified

"Oh, well how long did you stay with the gang?" George inquired

"I stayed with the gang for a month; I found Hermione two weeks after I got there so I kept her with us. We met you and the rest of your family in Diagon Alley three weeks ago. But after you left Hermione and I met a girl in a café, Shauna. She turned out to be a Death Eater, Hermione flew off the handle, and she dragged Shauna outside and tried to kill her in an alley. I got Hermione off of her, but not before she managed to slash a dagger down Shauna's chest. I threw Hermione against the wall too hard and she was knocked unconscious. So there was nobody there to stop me when I attacked Shauna because she was bleeding. But someone did. My mate made me stop. So I took the girls here and I just kind of stayed. Tom offered me a position among the Death Eaters and I took it, but I sent Hermione to you, I thought she may not be safe here." Harry explained

Fred and George nodded in understanding.

"Are you safe here?" George asked, concerned for his friends' safety

"Well… I'm not dead yet. Yes Mother! I'm perfectly safe, I'm a Death Eater, Tom's not going to kill me anytime soon and if he tries I have Shauna, Bellatrix, Draco, Lucius and probably even Severus all on my side. I'll be fine!" Harry reassured the twin.

"Shauna? She's the one you met in the café isn't she?" George asked

"Yes. And she would prefer if you didn't talk about her when she isn't present" called a feminine voice from the door.

Harry snapped his head up to look at the door. Shauna was leaning there, book in hand, obviously relaxed. Her ears and tail were all out. She sashayed her way to the bed and sat down beside Harry.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked

"Draco needed a little bit of comfort but he got a little too weepy" Shauna answered

"So you just left him?" Harry asked, outraged.

"Yes" Shauna stated simply.

Harry huffed and ran out of the room, eager to check on Draco.

With everyone they were familiar with out of the room. The twins resorted to their favourite trick. Stating the obvious in unison,

"You're a cat…"


	7. Harry's' health scare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry gives everyone a slight heart attack.

Chapter seven 

 

"Draco? Are you in here?"

Silence met Harry's call. It seemed as though the room was empty. He reached out further with his hearing, just as he had the day he met Shauna. He was rewarded with the sound of soft breathing. Draco was hiding in his bathroom. But why?

"Draco? I know that you're in there. Why are you hiding? Are you okay?" Harry called again

"Go away" rang a pitifully quiet voice from the bathroom.

Harry walked towards the bathroom and placed a hand on the door.

"Why? Why do you want me to leave, Draco?" Harry called through the door

"I don't want to talk to you!" Draco replied

Harry frowned and pressed his forehead to the door in an attempt to feel closer to Draco.

"Draco? Okay, I'm worried now. If you don't let me in I'll break the door down!" Harry threatened

There was no reply except for the breathing speeding up again.

"Draco, you have three seconds and then you had better move away from the door" Harry informed

Draco still refused to answer.

"Three, two, this is your last chance Draco. ONE!" Harry shouted

He lifted a trainer clad foot and delivered a swift, powerful kick to the door. The wood splintered under the strain and fell off its hinges. Harry stepped into the room and looked around for Draco. The blond veela was curled in on himself, knees drawn up to his chest and his chin resting heavily on them.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked

"No" came the reply

Panic seeped slowly and viscously into Harry's mind. What had happened? Was Draco hurt?

"What happened to you?" Harry asked

"I don't want to talk about it" Draco deadpanned

Harry sat down on the ground beside the blond boy. He frowned when he noticed Draco lean away from him.

"What's wrong with you?" Harry asked again

Draco ignored him and actually moved away from him this time. Harry reached out and grabbed his arm.

"What's your problem?" Harry asked a little more angrily

Draco shook his arm free from Harry's grip and stood.

"YOU! YOU ARE MY PROBLEM, HARRY!" Draco screamed

"Me? What the hell did I do?" Harry asked incredulously

Draco didn't answer. He just stood there and stared at Harry's corset clad chest. Harry was a patient person but decided that after almost four minutes of silence and non stop staring, enough was enough.

"Draco? Hello? Wizarding world to Draco, come in Draco!" Harry called to the boy

"Huh?" Draco asked, still not completely focused Harry

Harry chuckled and placed his hands on either side if Draco's face.

"Are you okay?" he asked the blond slowly

Draco nodded and reached out towards Harry's chest. Harry was puzzled at the action but let Draco do as he wished. The blond took Harry's new necklace into his palm

"This is... this is…" Draco stuttered and trailed off

"It's a necklace, some friends gave it to me and Bellatrix made me wear it. She said it's something to do with my mate. And get this! The bloody thing gave me a great big tattoo on my back! Well. It's more of a burn or a scar than a tattoo, but still!" Harry said enthusiastically, glad that Draco was at least making an effort to talk to him

"No, no, no. Don't you know what this is? Harry, this is a promise charm!" Draco exclaimed

"A what?" Harry asked

"Have you ever seen those tacky little promise rings that idiotic muggle couples give each other?" Draco asked

"Erm, yeah, it's like promising that they belong to the other person, right? Saying that they'll marry them and won't ever cheat or sleep with anyone else?" Harry asked

"Yes! Those! But those rings don't force you to do it! You see that necklace right there? You can't take it off. It stops you from cheating on your mate! If you try to, it causes a curse a thousand times more painful than a Cruciatus curse to course through your veins! And if you refuse to be with your mate, it kills you. I mean, you'd die anyway because vampires can't live without their mates, but this would be so much worse than dying of heartbreak." Draco explained solemnly

"Oh my God! Draco! I can't die like that! I just can't!" Harry exclaimed as he stood

He started to panic and reached for the necklace before Draco could stop him. He grabbed the necklace and yanked as hard as he could. He used all of his supernatural strength, expecting the chain to snap. But it didn't, the chain tightened. Harry panicked and pulled harder. The chain tightened again and cut off the air getting to his lungs. Harry fell back to the ground and fought futilely for air. He gasped and choked and sputtered. His pulse was thumping so loudly in his ears that he couldn't hear Draco screaming his name and yelling for help when didn't respond as he fired every spell he knew at the necklace.

Harry's world went black

…..

"Harry? Harry? Can you hear me?"

The familiar voice pierced the darkness that engulfed Harry's mind.

He came back to awareness slowly. He tried to move his fingers, open his eyes, tried do something to let the voice know he was okay. But the darkness refused to let him.

He fought the darkness as hard as he could. He inwardly cheered as the darkness began to recede and the weight pressing down all over his body lessened.

His eyes opened and the light in the room immediately caused pain to flood his mind. He hissed at the pain coursing throughout his head and closed his eyes again. The owner of the voice had evidently heard Harry's pained hiss or had seen his eyes open briefly.

Harry felt a slightly cold hand grasp his own and squeeze firmly.

"Harry, can you hear me?" asked the voice again, much more clearly this time

Harry moaned as another spike of pain pierced through his head due to the increased volume of the voice.

"Harry?" the voice asked again

Harry groaned and tried to curl in on himself, but cried out as his muscles protested the movement.

"Where does it hurt?" the voice whispered concernedly

"Everywhere" Harry hissed through his teeth

Harry heard footsteps leading away from him, then the light he could see behind his eyes disappeared and the pain in his head became less overpowering. He chanced opening his eyes and sighed in relief when the pain remained bearable.

…

Tom Riddle smiled as he saw his charge's open eyes. The Dark Lord had rushed to young Draco Malfoy's room when he heard the young veela scream for help, anguish painfully evident in his voice. He was met with a sight which would haunt the dark wizard for life. The young vampire whom he had come to think of as a son and protégé, sprawled on the ground, his face as blue as a forget-me-not petals and unconscious with a necklace tightened around his throat.

The Dark Lord had used a powerful loosening charm to allow Harry to breathe. But Harry's chest remained still. Tom was forced to resort to muggle methods. Whilst pushing air from his own lungs into Harry's, he ordered a distraught and borderline hysterical Draco to run ahead to the infirmary and tell the Mediwitch what was happening as well as sending someone to help Harry.

Once he got the boy to the infirmary and had been assured that he would be taken care of, Tom went to find out where that necklace had come from. He managed to calm Draco down enough to discover that Harry claimed Bellatrix had made him put the necklace on. Draco denied knowing who had given Harry the necklace in the first place, he insisted that Harry hadn't told him who they were, only that there was more than one person.

"I'll be right back Harry, I have to go have a little chat with a few people" Tom whispered softly as Harry's eyes closed and the boy fell into a restful sleep

Tom left the room and went looking for Bellatrix. She was in Harry's room, conversing with a half breed Death Eater and two identical, red headed teenage boys. The Dark Lord did not pause before he fired a Cruciatus at the witch. The younger Death Eater and the ginger twins jumped away from the screaming woman. Tom lifted the curse and smirked cruelly as the woman immediately crawled to kneel at his feet.

"Master?" she whimpered pitifully

"You gave Harry a necklace that almost killed him" Voldemort stated

"N-no master, the necklace I gave Harry wouldn't have killed him! It was to help him find his mate!" She reasoned

"It choked him into unconsciousness!" The Dark Lord hissed furiously

Bellatrix paused in her grovelling. No, that necklace couldn't be dangerous, she had tested it the most extensive diagnostic spells she knew!

"My Lord, I don't know how this possibly could've happened!" Bellatrix exclaimed hysterically

"Rest assured Bellatrix, this will not go unpunished" Tom said coldly

"Y-yes My Lord" she relented as she kissed the hem of his robes and crawled away again

"Shauna?" Tom asked the young feline hybrid

"Yes, My Lord?" she replied as she bowed to kiss the hem of his robes

"What do you know of this?" He asked

"Of the necklace, My Lord? Nothing. I was with Draco all morning, I arrived and informed Harry that the young Malfoy was upset and he left immediately" She told him respectfully

"Thank you" Tom dismissed the girl subtly

She nodded solemnly and retreated to sit on the bed.

"You two! Come here" Tom addressed the twins

They looked at each other before they walked forward and knelt before The Dark Lord.

"Yes sir?" they asked in unison as they imitated Shauna's action of kissing the hem of Tom's robes

"What do you know of the necklace?" Voldemort asked

The twins looked at each other and swallowed hard

"We were ordered to bring it here" Fred answered

"By whom?" Voldemort asked

"The Order of the Phoenix" George replied

The Dark Lord snarled at the mention of the organisation, they had attempted to ruin his plans and now they attempt to kill his protégé? This was not going to go unpunished.

"Any specific member?" Tom asked coolly

"Professor Dumbledore" Fred confirmed Tom's suspicion

"Of course, the old codger cannot stand a single one of his pawns being out of his control!" Voldemort grumbled

"Pawns? Sir!" Fred added the title hastily

"Yes, pawns. That is all Dumbledore sees anyone on the side of the light as. Pawns are disposable and weak compared to any other chess piece. The first sacrificed and the first killed" Voldemort spit in explanation 

"Really? We've thought that for years, haven't we Fred?" George asked informally

"Yes sir! And now with everything Harry has told us, we don't trust him as far as we can throw him!" Fred agreed wholeheartedly

"Which coincidentally, isn't very far!" George added helpfully

"We're you aware of what this necklace was?" Voldemort asked the boys

"No sir! Professor Dumbledore just told us that Harry was here against his will and that the necklace was a portkey to get him to the Hogwarts express next week!" Fred clarified

"We never would have given it to him if we had known that it could hurt him!" George promised

"Very well, you will not be punished" Tom informed

"Thank you sir" both boys said sincerely

"May I ask of Harry's wellbeing sir?" George questioned tentatively

"Harry is asleep in the infirmary, but he will be fine" Tom replied

"May we see him?" Shauna asked, concern seeping into her voice

"I shall summon all three of you when he awakes again and is deemed healthy. Until then, the Mediwitch and I shall be the only ones permitted entrance to the infirmary" Tom told them

"Thank you sir" all three replied.

Bellatrix remained silent, still afraid of what her Lord could do.

Lord Voldemort turned to leave the room.

"Bellatrix? I believe you are needed in the dungeons for your punishment" he told the witch with a cruel smirk

The obviously scared woman whimpered and followed the Dark Lord out the door and out of sight.

"Well, that was…terrifying" George said as he let out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding

Shauna let out a slightly hysterical giggle.

"Yes, The Dark Lord tends to be protective of Harry. He has been since Harry joined him" she explained

"Joined him? So Harry really is a Death Eater?" Fred asked

"Yes, one of The Dark Lord's favourites actually" Shauna stated calmly

"Does he have the dark mark?" Fred questioned

"Not yet, but I assume he will soon" Shauna told him

"Oh, well that changes the plan a little bit" The twins said in unison

"What plan?" Shauna asked suspiciously

"Well, the Order of the Phoenix had a plan-" Fred began

"And we had a plan" George finished

The girl waited for them to elaborate and sighed when they didn't. Clearly they were teasing her.

"What was their plan?" she asked

"They wanted us to get Harry the necklace" Fred told her

"Why?" She asked

"They didn't tell us much, only that it would get him back to them and get him to the Hogwarts Express" George answered

"Yeah, and at the time we thought he was being held captive!" Fred added

"And what was your plan?" Shauna asked

"Right from the start we just wanted Harry to be safe" George insisted

"Yes. And now that we know he's happy and safe here? Well, we'll just have to find a way to make sure he stays safe" Fred told her honestly

"And just how do you plan to do that?" Shauna asked curiously

"We plan to join The Dark Lord" the twins said in unison

…

"Emerald? Do you remember what happened?" asked the Mediwitch

"I was talking to Draco. A-and I panicked about something he told me and my necklace tightened. I tried to get it off, but it wouldn't break or even loosen a little bit! Where is Draco?" Harry whispered, unable to speak any louder because of his sore throat

"Hmm? Oh, he was very upset about you being hurt, hysterical even. I believe he was given a sleeping draught and put to bed for a while. Is this the necklace?" the Mediwitch asked as she pointed to the little set of diamond wings nestled in the hollow of Harry's throat.

"Yes, how did you loosen it?" Harry asked

"I didn't. The Dark Lord did" She replied

"He did?" Harry questioned

"Yes. My Lord found you unconscious on young Draco's bedroom floor. He managed to loosen the chain and keep it loose, but you had already stopped breathing and you didn't start again when he loosened the chain." The Mediwitch said solemnly

"How am I alive then?" Harry asked

"He used the muggle method of mouth to mouth to get you to breathe again. He sent Draco to find me and we got you here to the infirmary to make sure you were okay" she explained kindly

"He used a muggle First aid method? Where is he now? I would very much like to thank him!" Harry asked, awe clear in his tone

"My Lord went to find whoever was responsible for hurting you and punish them" the Mediwitch told him

"What? Oh no! The twins!" Harry croaked in despair

"Who?" the Mediwitch asked

"My friends! They were ordered to give me the necklace!" Harry replied

"Oh dear! Were they aware that the necklace was dangerous?" she asked

"No, Bellatrix took it from them, analyzed it and made me put it on" Harry replied

"And did it do anything then?" she asked

"Yes, it burned me; it was horrible, like someone set every inch of me on fire. But then it just concentrated on my back and got even worse. And then… I stopped breathing. Just like in Draco's room. And then Bellatrix put the necklace on me and I could breathe again" Harry explained to the witch

"Well, that is odd. We'll have to look into what exactly the necklace is and what we should do to stop you getting hurt again. But as far as I can tell, it'll hold off unless you do something to activate the charm" she told him

"Oh, can I leave?" Harry asked, eager to make sure the twins were okay.

"The Dark Lord was adamant that you not be permitted to leave until he has seen you again" the Mediwitch told Harry softly

"Oh, when will he be here?" Harry questioned in a pained whisper

"Right about now" answered a voice from the door of the infirmary

Harry turned and grinned

"Tom!" he croaked

"Hello Emerald!" Tom answered

Harry smiled as Tom turned to the Mediwitch

"How is he?" The Dark Lord asked the plump young woman

"He has bruises, deep cuts and possible scarring around his neck which the charms on the necklace refuse let me heal and his voice has been weak due to a sore throat, but I wanted to wait for your permission to heal that" she told him, amazed that the child hadn't been punished for calling her lord by his muggle name 

"Heal it" The Dark Lord demanded

The Mediwitch nodded and pressed the tip of her wand lightly to Harry's throat. With a whispered word, a comforting heat spread through his vocal cords and the pain in his throat disappeared.

Harry smiled as he cleared his throat.

"Thank you" He told the Mediwitch

"No problem at all, Love" she replied

"You are dismissed" The Dark Lord instructed

The woman bowed before backing out of the room. Tom turned to Harry.

"You are an idiot!" he told the boy

Harry looked down in shame. Tom sighed and hugged the teenager to his chest.

"I thought I'd lost you" he murmured into Harry's raven locks

"I'm sorry" Harry replied

"Don't worry about it. But, if you feel up to it, there are some people who would like to see you" Tom told him

"Really? Who?" Harry asked

"Shauna and two redheaded twins whom I have yet to be properly introduced to" Tom replied

"Those are the Weasley twins, Fred and George" Harry informed

"Of the blood traitor family? Can they be trusted?" Tom asked seriously

"Completely, they are two of the few people who I know aren't happy on the light side or are not loyal to Dumbledore" Harry answered

"There are more? Would you be able to convince them to join? A spy is a useful thing, Harry" Tom told him insightfully

"Of course, I have been intending to speak to you about that actually. The necklace has a portkeying charm on it to take me to the Hogwarts Express next week. Am I to go or shall we find a way to break the spell?" Harry asked

Tom thought for a moment before he answered.

"I believe it would be a good idea for you to go. We do not wish for the Order of the Phoenix to find out you are here by choice or that you have joined me. We shall think of a story for you to tell them and whilst you are at Hogwarts you can gather information on the light side and get me some new recruits. You will be the perfect spy. None of them will suspect Dumbledore's little golden boy!" Tom rejoiced

"Of course they won't. Little Harry Potter is far too sweet and innocent for that type of thing! I would never join the mean, old Dark Lord!" Harry mocked

Tom threw his head back and laughed. He ran his hand through Harry's hair and squeezed the boy one last time before he pulled back.

Tom raised his wand and thought for a moment.

"Expecto Patronum" he said

A translucent silver snake shot from the tip of The Dark Lord's wand

"Find Shauna Cross, Fred Weasley and George Weasley, tell them they can come visit Harry and lead them here" Tom commanded in Parseltongue

"Of course, Speaker" the snake replied in Parseltongue

The shimmering serpent faded out of the room and Tom and Harry were left alone once more.

Their comfortable silence was broken when Shauna pelted into the room at full speed a moment later. Fred and George a millisecond behind her.

Shauna stood in front of the bed as she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. An expectant look painted across her features and her hands clasped together at her chest. Harry chuckled.

"Go ahead" he told the feline girl

Shauna squealed wordlessly and launched herself onto his chest. They both bounced a little bit and giggled. She curled up on his chest and kissed one of the chain link shaped cuts on his neck.

"Are you okay?" she questioned in a whisper

"I'm fine" Harry replied

Shauna nodded, satisfied with his answer and pushed her glasses up to rest more firmly on her nose. She curled up more comfortably on Harry's chest and fell asleep.

"Alright, Mate?" The twins asked in unison

"Yeah, I'm okay" Harry replied

The silence that followed was awkward. Harry bit his lips and the twins scratched their heads, they both looked as if they wanted to ask something. Harry grinned.

"Get in here, both of you!" He told them

The twins cheered and jumped into the bed beside Harry and Shauna. Well, they were actually laying half on the bed and half on Harry himself, seeing as the bed was only made for one person.

Tom chuckled at the sight and left them to their reunion.

"So…Harrison James Potter becomes Emerald!" George exclaimed dramatically

"Are you happy here?" Fred asked

Harry thought for a moment. He had never been happy with the Dursleys, not even before the abuse got physical. Dudley had made him feel loved and cared for, but not happy.

He thought he was happy at Hogwarts, but he realised that he was constantly being watched and monitored. His every move at Hogwarts was controlled; Dumbledore had made sure he did everything he had done at Hogwarts. Harry was put off of Slytherin house before he even set foot inside Hogwarts.

Dumbledore had left the school to force Harry to go and rescue the philosopher's stone. He had sent an obviously inadequate teacher to fight the basilisk and save Ginny Weasley. Harry hadn't really cared about what happened to Ginny, but the basilisk had attacked Hermione. Harry wanted revenge.

And then there was third year, Dumbledore knew that the Potters had changed their secret keeper to Peter Pettigrew, but he let Sirius go to Azkaban. And he kept Harry away from his own godfather. And after Harry had gotten to Sirius, Dumbledore fully intended to let Sirius receive the Dementor's kiss. He probably didn't think Harry and Hermione could save Sirius and Buckbeak with the time turner.

He allowed Harry to be entered in the Triwizard Tournament, even though he was fully aware that competitors had been killed in the past. He even let Harry be coached by a Death Eater. That was when Harry realised that The Dark Lord was far superior to Dumbledore. A mere minion of Tom's was able to infiltrate the castle right under Dumbledore's nose and remain undetected. He was able to get Harry alone; he could have killed him at any given time. And Dumbledore didn't even know that the man wasn't his old friend. The imposter was even trusted alone with the Triwizard cup, which he was then able to turn into a portkey to send Harry straight to Tom. Harry's blood was taken and his first crush was killed. Harry had nightmares about Cedric's blank stare for a year.

By his fifth year, Harry's loyalty to Dumbledore had faded almost completely, but he didn't let anyone know, he acted just as he always had, even going as far as standing up to a teacher about Voldemort's return. Hermione got the idea to teach the students how to defend themselves so she and Harry started the 'Dumbledore's Army' defence group. Harry despised the name, but knew it would raise suspicion if he called it something that wasn't in favour of Dumbledore. So he went with it, he taught them everything they wanted to know. But nothing that would actually be of any use against Tom. He didn't want them rising up and helping the light side to win the war. Not whilst Dumbledore was leading them.

Harry was kissed by Cho Chang that year and ended up dating her for a while, but the experience just cemented his sexuality. Girls were horrid creatures to date, demanding ridiculous things and going mad when you didn't notice the slightest change! Harry loved having girls as friends. Girls liked the things he liked and weren't always trying to one up the rest of their group to appear dominant like boys were.

Then he lost Sirius, Harry knew in his gut that the visions were fake, but that wasn't going to stop him, if his godfather was killed because he was wrong, Harry could never forgive himself. As it turned out, he was right, the visions were fake. Sirius wasn't there and he had just led a group of school children into mortal danger. He got to the prophecy and it was eventually broken. In the confusion of the Order of the Phoenix arriving and Sirius falling through the veil, Harry was the only person who heard it. But he never told anyone what he heard and claimed to Dumbledore that he hadn't heard it.

The old wizard had sprouted off some nonsense about Severus Snape hearing the prophecy the night it was made. He had claimed that the prophecy predicted

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..."

Harry, having heard the real prophecy, was well aware of the fact that the old man was lying through his crooked, yellow teeth. The real prophecy had, in fact, said

"The one with the power to rule with The Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and The Dark Lord will mark him as his equal…believed to be light but he shall stand at The Dark Lord's side… he shall give up his humanity and change in ways the light know not… they will believe him to be theirs… but he belongs to The Dark Lord… the one with the power to rule with The Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"

None the less, Harry had gone back to the Dursley's home with Dumbledore believing that he was well and truly prepared to kill Tom.

When Harry joined the Fallen Angels, he felt like a part of something, almost part of a family. But it didn't last, thanks to Pierce. Harry had felt so threatened and afraid for Hermione's safety in the first place he had truly felt at home. He was actually looking for an apartment in muggle London when he had met Shauna.

The girl turned out to be a godsend, as soon as he had gotten her and Hermione to Tom; he was able to speak with The Dark Lord, who offered Harry a place within the ranks and a place to live. Harry had graciously accepted both. And since then, he was happier than he'd ever been in his life.

"Yes, I'm really happy. I love it here" Harry replied with a grin

"Well, if you're happy-" Fred began

"We're happy" George finished

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked

"Where do we sign up?" the twins asked in unison

"Seriously?" Harry asked, in awe of what the boys were willing to do for him

"Of course, Harry" George answered

"We'll do whatever we can to keep you safe and happy" Fred told the boy seriously

Harry grinned and hugged them both tightly to his side before sitting up quickly. The twins let out a united squawk of outrage as they were thrown from the bed onto the floor. Shauna managed to hang on by digging her nails into Harry's corset. He laughed at the matching expressions of shock on the twins' faces.

"Since when are you strong enough to throw us off of you?" Fred asked

"Yeah, does this mean our dog-piles wont work anymore?" George asked downheartedly

"Yeah, they'll work, but not if I've just fed" Harry said with a giggle

"Oh, that's okay then" George said

"When was the last time you fed?" Fred asked curiously

"This morning, I helped Tom with some new recruits" Harry revealed

"What does that mean?" George asked

"The new recruits fight me. Those who win join the ranks, those who fail are feasted upon" Harry said

"Well, that's not morbid at all" George said sarcastically

"This is the Dark side" Harry told him

A shimmering doe patronus cantered into the room and opened its mouth.

"The Dark Lord has given his permission for Harry to leave the infirmary. There is to be a meeting at seven o'clock and Harry, Miss Cross and the Weasley twins are to attend. Mr Potter is to dress the Weasleys appropriately and please do ensure they do not look like street rats in hand me down rags" it said in an echoing version of Severus Snape's voice

Shauna and Harry looked at each other, then at the twins, then back to each other.

"George, I'm scared" Fred said quietly

"You should be, Fred, you should be" replied his brother

"Come on boys, we have to get you ready!" Harry told them excitedly

"But the meeting isn't for an hour and a half!" Fred exclaimed

"I know! We're running behind already!" Shauna told them

Fred and George looked at each other. What had they gotten themselves into? But then they saw the look on Harry's face. His grin was practically splitting his face in half. What could it hurt? If Harry dressing them made him happy, well, who were they to deny him?

"Okay, lets go" Fred declared

Harry and Shauna squealed with joy before leading the way out of the room. Fred and George shared a still slightly fearful look before they followed.

….

They emerged from Harry's room a mere hour and ten minutes later. Fully dressed and ready to attend a Death Eater meeting, something Fred and George never thought they would be able to say.

Shauna had gone simple with her outfit, determined to spend most if her time helping the twins. She was wearing a pair of pink skinny jeans, a black lace top, black kitten pumps and a heavy black robe with the hood pulled up over her face. She had covered her feline assets to avoid sticking out.

Harry had loyally stuck by his corset and trainers, but had taken the fishnet tights off and transfigured the acid green shorts into acid green skinny jeans. He had tied his hair back into a ponytail, leaving a long strand on each side hanging down, one red and one green.

George wore a royal blue button up shirt, black skinny jeans, black combat boots and a lightweight black robe. Harry had helped him dye his ginger hair black with a single purple streak at the front.

Fred wore a purple button up shirt, black skinny jeans, black combat boots and a lightweight black robe. His hair was now black with a single royal blue streak at the front.

Harry had insisted that they all wear make up. Fred had fought for a moment but Harry had just frozen him and carried on. So Fred now had blusher on his cheeks and black eye shadow smeared artfully on his eyelids.

George hadn't fought and just gone with the flow. He now had blue eye shadow neatly brushed onto his eyelids and clear lip gloss smeared delicately onto his lips.

Shauna had pink eye shadow on her eyelids and a little rainbow painted onto her cheek which she had done simply because she had finished getting ready before anybody else and was bored.

Harry had wiped his own make up off and replaced it with something much more dramatic. He had drawn black tribal designs down the whole left side of his face and made his green eyes stand out by circling them with black eyeliner.

"Are we ready?" George asked as he took one last look at himself in a mirror in the hall to make sure he didn't look like a 'street rat in hand me down rags' as Severus had put it

"Yes, follow me" Harry replied

He led them down three flights of stairs and through countless hallways and dizzying amounts of twists and turns. The came to a stop outside a pair of tightly shut wooden doors. Harry turned to the twins as Shauna continued into the room.

"You two will need to stand alongside the other recruits who have made it this far. Once you have been inducted, you will come and sit by me, I will be at Tom's side. Understood?" Harry asked

The twins nodded in unison.

"Why are we being admitted so easily and so quickly?" Fred asked

"Because, I told Tom you were trustworthy and that you were loyal to me" Harry replied

"Why are we doing this so soon?" George asked with a little bit of apprehension in his tone

"Do you not want to do this anymore? I can erase your memories now and send you home before anyone else sees you. You can honestly say that you gave me the necklace and can't remember anything after that" Harry told them

"No, I don't want to live my life as a pawn. I'm doing this, with or without you George" Fred declared almost immediately after Harry had finished speaking

George bit on his lip for a moment. If he had doubts before, they were gone now. If his twin was so willing to do this, then it couldn't possibly be a bad thing. He looked into Harry's eyes and all traces of worry were wiped from his mind.

"I'm doing it too" He told the boy proudly

Harry felt pride and happiness well up inside him and smiled briefly but didn't wait to see if the boys had anymore questions. He threw the heavy doors open as if they weighed nothing and strode into the room. Fred and George followed after him and walked straight to a small group of people standing in a huddle in one corner. They stood silently amongst the chatter of the Death Eaters.

The Dark Lord entered the room and all noise faded immediately. Everyone stood out of respect and most bowed. The twins noticed that Harry was not among those who bowed. Tom strode to the head of the table and took his seat beside Harry, everyone else sat down again once he was fully seated.

"Have we any news from Hogwarts, Severus?" asked The Dark Lord

Snape stood and bowed.

"Yes My Lord, Dumbledore is becoming more and more frantic in his search for Harry Potter. He has sent Mr Potter a portkey to Kings Cross Station on the first of September" Severus informed

"Of course, Harry is a valuable asset to him" Tom said with a subtle look at the boy next to him

Harry smiled under the hood of his cloak at the subtle praise.

A masked Death Eater stood and bowed, just as Severus had.

"Master, Dumbledore is getting desperate and has been recruiting within the students of Hogwarts in an attempt to increase the numbers of the Order of the Phoenix, I am aware of a number of students who have agreed, as well as those who have not" said the familiar female voice

"Continue, Sybill" Tom told the witch

So that's why the voice was familiar! It was Professor Trelawney! She never seemed dark to Harry, but then again she was out of it quite a lot.

"Of course, My Lord. Of the students asked, Mr Ron Weasley, Ms Katie Bell, Ms Lavender Brown, Ms Marietta Edgecombe, Mr Anthony Goldstein, Ms Angelina Johnson, Mr Ernie Macmillian, Ms Padma Patil, Ms Parvati Patil and Ms Ginny Weasley have accepted and joined the Order of the Phoenix" Trelawney continued

"And has any possibly useful student not joined Dumbledore and his troop of deranged freedom fighters?" Tom asked, the mocking title earned a few giggles from around the room

"Ms Hermione Granger, Mr Terry Boot, Ms Cho Chang, Mr Colin Creevey, Mr Dennis Creevey, Mr Justin Finch-Fletchley, Mr Seamus Finnigan, Mr Lee Jordan, Mr Fred Weasley, Mr George Weasley, Mr Neville Longbottom, Ms Luna Lovegood and Mr Dean Thomas have all declined and show promise, Master" the witch replied

Harry was surprised at a few of the names and proud of others. He never did picture most of the students the seer had mentioned as dark or even neutral, he thought they were firmly light, blindly following Dumbledore like most of the wizarding population of Britain and Ireland.

"Excellent, we shall attempt to recruit them once the school year starts. Speaking of which, I believe we have some new recruits?" The Dark Lord directed the question at Emerald

"Yes, My Lord" Harry replied

The boy stood and made his way over to the group huddled in the corner. He motioned for them to follow and explained briefly that they would be called forward and made to swear an oath on their knees before Lord Voldemort; they would then be given a rank and the Dark Mark.

They all moved to line up to the side of The Dark Lord's chair. Fred and George moved to stand beside Harry when he didn't move away from the group as they expected him to. As the Death Eaters were occupied watching the first recruit being marked Fred spoke as quietly as he could.

"Erm… Emerald?" He whispered

"Yes?"

Fred jumped as Harry's voice rang through his mind. He glared as Harry snickered quietly beside him. Fred tried to send a message back to him.

"That was not funny! Why are you still standing with us?" he asked mentally

"I haven't been marked yet, Tom still feared for my wellbeing. He wanted his Mediwitch to declare me to be well and strong enough to be marked" Harry replied through the link

"Oh, why wouldn't you be strong enough?" Fred asked

"After the abuse, my magic was drained quite a bit, the transformation only made me weaker for a while until I came to terms with it and got used to it, he just wanted to be sure" Harry replied

Fred nodded subtly and turned to face The Dark Lord.

"Fred and George Weasley?" 

The twins walked to The Dark Lord and dropped to their knees before him.

"Do you swear on your magic, your lives and the lives of your loved ones that you will be loyal to me and obey me to the best of your abilities?" Tom asked them

"We do" the replied in unison

A strand of silver magic stretched from each of the twins' hearts, joined into one and continued to Lord Voldemort's heart and hung there.

"Do you swear to keep secret what you have seen here this day? And to protect the identities of your fellow Death Eaters?" Tom asked

"We do" the twins swore together

The strand of magic turned a brilliantly glowing gold before fading away. Tom smiled softly; he had the perfect position for them.

"You shall be Emerald's personal carers. You two will be responsible for keeping him safe and happy. Do you accept this position?" Tom asked

"We accept it proudly" they chorused together

"Hold out your left arms" Tom told them

The twins did as they were told. Tom placed the tip of his wand on Fred's left forearm.

"Morsemordre" he hissed gently

Fred yelled out as a burning pain spread through his arm. Once it pulled back and faded away the dark mark was displayed proudly on his arm. The little snake hissed quietly as it settled into its new home.

George received the same treatment but took it a little bit more childishly. He rubbed at his arm and pouted like a five year old who had just received an injection once he had his own mark. They both retreated to stand back in line again.

"Emerald?" was called

Harry smirked and sauntered up to Tom and sank to his knees gracefully before the man. He took the same oath as Fred and George had and was marked without making a sound. It was his rank that surprised them all.

"You shall be my second in command. Do you accept?" Tom asked

Harry looked up at the other man with a strange light in his eyes and smirked.

"I accept" he declared proudly


	8. Back to school

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry returns to Hogwarts and puts on a show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter eight 

Harry groaned as he hit the ground. Fucking portkeys, did they have to drop you so roughly? The boy stood and rubbed at his throbbing backside. He straightened his clothes. Well, they were actually little more than rags, dirty and blood soaked. Harry checked to make sure his glamour charms were still working after the rough landing. Once he was sure they were secure, he hunched his back and started crying before he stepped out of the dark little alcove of King's Cross Station where the slightly modified portkey had dropped him.

He had painstakingly worked on casting his glamours for at least three hours before he left. He had modified his appearance to hide all of his scars but the one on his face had to stay as the Weasleys had seen it already. He made himself look severely bruised, as he should if he'd managed to escape Lord Voldemort's clutches after being missing all summer. He'd gotten Shauna to break one of his legs for authenticity. He had also reluctantly taken the colours out of his hair, made it look shorter, though it still brushed his upper arms. He had even gotten a pair of glasses with clear lenses. Harry limped towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten for a moment before he was noticed by the Weasley family. Well, it seemed he had timed this well. Ginny and Molly ran forward, grabbed onto him as his knees buckled and caught him before he hit the ground.

"Harry? Harry, what happened to you?" Molly asked worriedly

Harry just whined lowly like an injured dog. Molly's grip tightened protectively.

"FRED! GEORGE!" Molly screamed

The twins ran to Harry, Fred took the boy from his mother and sister and held him more comfortably and fully supported his weight. Harry groaned painfully and curled into the heat of Fred's chest.

"What do we do?" he heard Ginny screech

"There's nothing we can do but take him to Hogwarts" Fred replied

"I read in an interesting muggle book that if someone has been badly injured you should keep them awake" Arthur said helpfully

Harry felt himself being shaken so he opened his eyes again sleepily. He stared into the eyes of Fred Weasley and cocked an eyebrow.

"You need to stay awake, Harry" the twin explained

"Why?" Harry asked weakly

"If you fall asleep it may get worse, Darling" Ginny cooed disgustingly

Harry decided to ignore the anger that coursed through his veins at such an affectionate name being used by someone other than his mate. It just didn't feel right.

"Where're we going?" Harry slurred tiredly

"Hogwarts. Don't worry Mate, Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey will know what to do!" Ron told the other boy brightly

Harry growled lowly at Ron's use of the word "Mate", but Fred squeezed him just a little bit too tightly in warning. Harry coughed and cleared his throat to cover up his slip.

Fred rubbed Harry's back a little bit as the group hurried towards the barrier. Harry sighed as he felt the familiar sensation of passing through the fake wall envelope him for a mere moment. In Harry's opinion, it was rather like running under a waterfall of sorts, a split second of magic cascading over you, and then suddenly you've passed into a completely different world.

Fred carried Harry straight onto the train and into an empty compartment, followed by the rest of the Weasley family. Fred and George sat next to each other and draped Harry across their laps. Molly beat Ginny to sit by his head and started fussing over him. Ginny pouted and sat at Harry's feet instead. Ron and Arthur sat at the other side of the compartment.

"Now remember, Harry, you cannot fall asleep" Arthur told the boy

"Mmm hmm" Harry hummed tiredly

"Seriously, let's talk about something to keep you awake" Fred suggested

"Okay, you and George are going back to Hogwarts?" he asked as if he wouldn't already know whatever bullshit story they would tell him to keep up appearance. The boys had left Harry only two days ago after stripping the dye from their hair and informing their parents they'd been held captive.

"Yeah, we decided that because Umbridge was gone we should go back and finish our last year" George explained

"That's a very good idea. Quite mature coming from you actually" Hermione said as she entered the compartment with her face hidden by a book

"Hey 'Mione" Harry said weakly

"Hi Har- oh my goodness! What happened to you?" she asked as she caught sight of him over the top of her book

"I don't want to tell the story more than once" he protested

"That's okay, I can wait until you want to tell it, Harry" Hermione said gently

She went to sit on the floor beside Harry, ignoring the empty space beside Ron. The ginger boy fumed silently whilst the rest of the group tried to keep Harry awake. They talked about whatever came to mind until they felt the train start to slow down, at which point the younger occupants of the compartment left to change clothes while Molly and Arthur kept Harry awake. Harry insisted on walking to the carriages, but he only made it halfway before his broken leg buckled under him and Fred had to pick him up again.

They reached the castle and Arthur ran into the Great Hall to fetch Dumbledore, but came out a moment later and told them that Dumbledore needed them to bring Harry inside, just like Harry thought he would. So Fred carried the rag clad, blood soaked vampire into the Great Hall as the whole of Hogwarts looked on and whispered. Harry simply lay there limply, back arched, fingers nearly brushing the floor and head lolling from side to side with every step Fred took.

He peered at his classmates through his half lidded eyes. Most of them were horrified, the Gryffindor table especially. The majority of the Slytherins, knowing exactly where Harry had been all summer, hid their smirks as best they could. The other studentsHarry had contacted were good at hiding their allegiances, Harry observed, as Cho smirked at him through her crocodile tears, Seamus and Dean grasped hands and gasped lightly and Lee came forward to help Fred carry Harry. Together they got Harry to the front of the hall and laid him in front of Dumbledore's place at the table. The old man waved Madam Pomfrey over to them and stood stoically as she cast various diagnostic charms on Harry.

"Well?" Dumbledore asked the nurse

"He has been beaten repeatedly, has a bad,y broken leg, deep lacerations, he's still suffering from the aftermath of the Cruciatus curse and he is in a state of mild shock" Madam Pomfrey replied solemnly as she ran a comforting hand through the poor boy's hair. Harry fought down a smirk, his glamours had fooled even her diagnostic spells.

"H-how did he get h-hurt like that?" Hermione asked

"I don't know Ms Granger, and I'm afraid that isn't the worst of it" Madam Pomfrey told her

"Oh? And what is the worst?" Dumbledore asked curiously, as if they were discussing the weather

"I-I don't think that's something I should divulge without Harry's permission and certainly not in front of the whole school" Madam Pomfrey told the headmaster sharply

"S'okay" Harry slurred tiredly, "someone once told me that something that happened to me was a secret, and so naturally, the whole school knew about it. They'll find out somehow, may as well be with my permission"

Dumbledore smiled as Harry quoted him, the brat really was right in the palm of his hand. But where had the little snit been all summer? He would just have to find out once they were in private.

"He has been raped multiple times"

Madam Pomfrey said this relatively quietly, but with the room as quiet as the grave, her voice boomed and echoed. There was a moment of shocked silence before there was uproar. The students were so caught up in their outrage that none of them noticed Draco Malfoy, Cho Chang and Neville Longbottom sneak out of the Great Hall.

…..

The trio crept throughout the eerily silent castle, placing various undetectable charms everywhere they could. Cho sighed wistfully. Draco looked at Neville with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, Cho?" Neville asked the misty eyed girl

"Yes, Neville?" she asked in a dreamy voice

Draco snorted but covered it up with a cough when Neville glared at him.

"Are you alright? You seem …distracted" Neville continued

"Oh, I'm just thinking about how wonderful it's going to be" she replied

"How wonderful what is going to be?" Draco asked

"When Harry controls the wizarding world and we can be together without anybody coming between us" she told him with another sigh

"Alright, firstly, you are not permitted to call him that, only his close friends may call him by his name, his servants and underlings call him Emerald, so you will call him Emerald. Secondly, he will not rule the wizarding world, the Dark Lord will, and finally, he will never be with you. You…uh, aren't really his…type" Draco informed her coldly

"I will call him whatever I wish to call him! Seeing as I will be his wife in a matter of months! And of course he will rule the wizarding world; he will kill Voldemort and take absolute power, and, seeing as I was his first kiss, I would say I'm his type" Cho replied with a haughty sniff

"Wife?" Neville asked curiously

"Yes, my family has drawn up a wedding contract, it will be presented to Harry in a matter of weeks and once he signs it we can start preparations" Cho replied excitedly

"He won't sign it, he won't marry you and he certainly won't kill the Dark Lord!" Draco told the girl angrily

"Why wouldn't he sign it? He loves me!" Cho exclaimed

"Oh fuck, first the Weaslette, now you? Read my lips Cho! Harry. Is. Gay" Draco enunciated

"Yes Draco, and the sky is orange! I've kissed Harry, does it look like I'm a man?" She asked mockingly

"Do you really want me to answer that question, Chang?" Draco snapped

"Are you implying that I look like a man?" Cho questioned

"You said it Cho, not me" Draco replied with a smirk

Cho gasped and screamed wordlessly as she bounded forward and pounced on Draco. They loudly crashed to the floor and wrestled for a few minutes. Draco had just managed to get the upper hand when Neville fired a shield charm in between them and pressed the pair up against opposite sides of the hall.

"Enough! Both of you! You're going to get us caught and then we'll be found out and Harry will be found out! Is that what you want?" Neville hissed furiously

"NO! I would never want my Harry to be caught!" Cho insisted as Draco rolled his eyes

"Right, let's get back before we're missed then" Neville instructed as he lead the way back to the Great Hall

…..

The trio crept back into the hall and joined their respective houses. Cho sat with Terry Boot who smiled at her around the blood pop in his mouth. Neville sat with Dean and Seamus; the couple smiled and raised their intertwined hands in greeting. Draco went to sit with his housemates, but frowned when he felt a pull from the front of the hall. What was that? He frowned and looked to where he could feel the pull was coming from.

He looked at the crowded teachers table where each member of staff, the Weasleys, Granger and Dumbledore were crowded around Harry. He focused on each of them in turn and deduced that the pull was coming from Harry. He sighed, the feeling was clearly a Soul Pull. He knew that a veela felt Soul Pulls when their mate was near until the bond was completed. The Soul Pulls were to convince the veela to claim their mate and could drive the creature mad if ignored for too long.

He ignored the pull and went to stand with his housemates.

"Take Mr Potter to the Gryffindor common room please" Dumbledore requested of the Weasley twins

The uproar, which had quietened to background noise, immediately increased tenfold. Slytherins and Gryffindors alike protested Harry going to stay with the Gryffindors. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws protested that Harry needed a hospital.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore screamed

The students silenced immediately.

"Mr Potter will not leave Hogwarts until we have found out where he was, who he was with and what happened to him. Any student or member of staff caught trying to remove him from the castle will be punished severely" the old man informed coldly

The students mumbled a bit and Draco could practically feel loyalties shifting and solidifying. This was all going to work out very well for them. The Weasley twins went to lift the boy up, but he shook his head and sat up.

"Harry…" Fred started

"I can walk on my own! I'm fine" Harry insisted

Fred and George looked at each other before they let Harry stand on his own. The boy stumbled his way to the nearest house table, which just happened to be the Slytherin table. Fred smiled as he realised Harry was using his weakness as an excuse to sit where he felt comfortable.

Dumbledore scowled and glared at Harry, he couldn't have the boy mixing with the snakes.

"If we could all please sit at our house tables we can begin" the old man instructed

The students shuffled to sit. Dumbledore frowned when he saw that Harry was still seated at the Slytherin table, as were the Weasley twins, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley as well as several other students who shouldn't be there, Albus had just never bothered to learn their names.

"If we could all sit at our assigned house tables please? Gryffindors to the Gryffindor table, Slytherins to the Slytherin table and so on" Dumbledore asked more specifically as he glared at Potter and his little ragtag group of trouble makers, making it perfectly clear he was addressing them.

He was dumbstruck when Hermione Granger glared back at him with unmasked rage in her eyes. He looked around him and saw that some of the other students were also glaring at him, but only the very brave ones kept eye contact when he looked at them.

The Headmaster sighed and decided to concede on this point. After all, Potter had been hurt, quite badly in fact.

…

"I can't believe he's falling for this!" Fred exclaimed at the Slytherin table

"Nor can I actually, but keep your fucking voice down or you'll blow it!" Harry hissed

"Sorry" Fred replied sheepishly

"Harry… did the Dark Lord do this to you? Because last time I checked, you were allies!" Hermione whispered furiously

"Hermione I will explain all of this later. I'm organizing a meeting to weed out potential Death Eaters… you should be there. It'll probably be within the next month or so" Harry replied quietly

Hermione nodded mutely, truly considering it. She couldn't fucking stand the majority of the people the Dark Lord and Harry were fighting. But then again, the Dark Lord was completely against muggleborns being allowed into the magical world, so what would happen to her when Tom and Harry won the war?

"I'll think about it" she told Harry with a sigh

"That's all I ask" He replied kindly

He hissed as his broken leg snapped back into place and began to heal itself. He looked about until he caught the eye of one of the first years in line to be sorted. She had long dark hair, pretty blue eyes and glasses. The last of a healing incantation on her lips. Shauna had come to Hogwarts.

…..

"Welcome everyone" Snape spoke loudly in the quiet room

A few people mumbled a reply, but most of them were too busy gawping at the room. They had been informed the night before at the welcoming feast that Professor Dumbledore had been unable to find anyone willing to take up the supposedly cursed position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Professor Snape had kindly stepped forward and offered his services. So, until Dumbledore could find someone mad enough to take the job, Severus Snape would be teaching both Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Harry winced as another student's elbow bumped into a particularly nasty bruise on his arm. Madam Pomfrey had treated him and managed to fix most of the damage, but there would be bruising and sensitivity for about a week. He'd had to claim that Hermione had cast the healing incantation on his leg. He probably wouldn't have needed the Healer if he had fed. Very few people knew that if a vampire didn't feed for long enough, they became virtually human.

Professor Snape had completely changed what was now his Defence classroom. The room used to slightly resemble a muggle classroom with its long desks and dully painted walls decked out in various diagrams and motivational posters. But now, the floor was a mishmash of metal grates and glass panels, the walls were covered by black silk drapes and targets in different sizes and at different height on the wall, duelling platforms raised high off the ground, moving dummies armed with wands, swords and various other weapons were lined up against the far wall, one wall was completely covered with weapons, bows, swords, throwing knives and some things even Harry couldn't name. There was a trum of magic in the air.

Severus Snape stood in the middle of the room. Well, most of the students had to look twice to realise it was Professor Snape. The man had tied his long hair back into a tight knot at the base of his neck; there were only a few strands that weren't long enough to be trapped by the elastic holding the rest up, those hung around his face. He was out of his usual robes and had changed into a pair of dragon hide trousers and a matching jacket.

"Now, there weren't very many students who qualified to take Defense Against the Dark Arts at N.E.W.T level, and even less chose it" Snape paused to look around the room

Harry did the same and was proud to see that most of Dumbledore's Army who were in his year were in the room. He noticed that quite a few Slytherins were there too, including Draco, who shot Harry a small smile and then turned back to face the front of the room.

"Looking at your previous courses, I can see how uneducated you truly are. Your first teacher was a stuttering fool, your second was an imposter, the third was far too concerned with magical creatures, the fourth was a crazy ex auror obsessed with the Unforgivables, and the fifth was a ministry lackey who couldn't protect herself from a Pygmy Puff." Snape seethed to a chorus nervous giggles

"How is this year going to be any different?" asked a very unhappy Ron Weasley

"Because I am going to teach you how to protect yourselves and your loved ones, not only from other wizards, but from various creatures that could threaten you in the future" Snape drawled

Ron blinked and averted his eyes as the tips of his ears turned red. The rest of the class giggled and whispered jokes at the ginger's expense.

"Any more stupid questions? No? Alright then. The first thing you need for this class is a set of clothes that will protect you adequately from most spells" Professor Snape informed

Cho timidly raised her hand in the air

"Yes?" Severus asked

"Why do we need those, Sir? And where are we supposed to get them? There isn't a Hogsmeade weekend for weeks!" Cho exclaimed

"If you do not have suitable clothes, I will provide them for you" Professor Snape told them

"What counts as suitable?" Draco asked

"Dragon hide or muggle leather will deflect most minor spells" Snape replied

"Really? Muggle leather? As in cow's skin?" asked a surprised Hermione

"Quite a few muggle materials can block magic, but leather is the easiest to make clothes out of" Severus confirmed

"How odd" Hermione mused

Snape nodded and went to open a large trunk he had placed in the middle of the room.

"So, do any of you have dragon hide or leather clothes?" Snape asked

The students just mumbled inaudibly. Professor Snape sighed, it seemed they were a quiet bunch, for now.

"Move to the left of the room if you don't have any appropriate clothing" Snape ordered

His commanding tone broke the students out of their stupor. The majority of them shuffled to the left side if the room to stand by Severus' trunk. Out of the twenty five students in the class, only Harry, Draco, Cho, Terry Boot and Blaise Zabini remained.

"You five are free to go and change into your clothes. But please cover them up with a coat or something, some people may not take kindly to students walking the halls in leather" Snape told them

They nodded and left the room. Blaise and Draco went straight downstairs in the direction of the dungeons. Harry, Cho and Terry continued up towards the towers.

"So, Harry" Cho purred his name suggestively

"Yeah, Cho?" Harry asked, startled at her tone

"Like I said, the first Hogsmeade trip is in a few weeks…" she trailed off

"And?" Harry asked distractedly as he mentally sifted through his wardrobe

"I was wondering if you would like to try again. We could go to the Three Broomsticks for a drink" Cho told him

"Yeah, yeah. Sure, Cho" Harry asked, not paying any attention to her at all

Cho giggled happily and veered to the left in the direction of the Ravenclaw tower. Terry gawped at Harry, disbelief clear in his eyes.

"Harry? Do you know what you just agreed to?" he asked

"Huh? What? I agreed to something? When?" Harry asked as he snapped out of his stupor

"Just now! Cho asked you out and you agreed!" Terry exclaimed

"W-what? But, but I don't want to date Cho!" Harry whined

"Well you had better tell her that" Terry said as he left Harry's side and walked after Cho.

Harry stood there gaping like a fish for a moment before he sighed and walked off to the Gryffindor tower. He gave the password to the Fat Lady, strolled into the common room and ignored Ginny as she called his name. He ran right passed her and into the dormitory he shared with Neville, Ron, Dean and Seamus. He ran to his trunk and rummaged through it until he found all of his leather clothing. He laid it all out on his bed and tried to find something that was suitable to wear in school. He ruled out his leather shorts and anything else that didn't cover enough skin to protect him.

He ended up in a pair of tight leather trousers that fit like a second skin and allowed him to move freely, he threw a skirt over it so he could conceal weapons on his upper thighs and then put on a dragon hide corset Xander had given him as a going away present when Harry had left the gang and gone to live with the Death Eaters. Harry missed Xander dearly; the werewolf had been his mentor and protector. Harry knew he would be seeing him again, Fenrir's pack followed Voldemort and Xander had claimed Harry as his pup. Werewolves didn't take commitments like that lightly. No, Harry would definitely be seeing Xander again. Harry smiled softly do himself as he pulled on a leather jacket and a pair of muggle trainers. He covered the whole thing up with a long coat and ran out of the common room and through the halls.

"Harry!" Cho called after him just as he reached the door of the defence classroom

Harry turned and grimaced at the girl. He caught sight of Terry muffling his giggles behind her and glared at the other boy.

"Erm, hi Cho" Harry replied half heartedly

"Do you like my outfit?" she asked as she shrugged her coat off and batted her eyelashes

Harry looked down at her clothes, if her measly scraps of leather could even be classified as clothes. He gawped with his mouth wide open. She was wearing a brown leather bra and a matching miniskirt, her feet were clad in a pair of skyscraper heels that she was clearly having trouble walking in. she did a little twirl and Harry could clearly see her arse sticking out from under the tiny skirt.

"Oh, wow. You look very… nice" Harry told her as he used his tongue to wet his parched lips

Cho smiled widely and stumbled towards Harry. She tripped right beside him and he instinctually reached out to catch her. She simpered and curled closer to him. Harry blinked bemusedly and put her back onto her feet. She pouted.

"Harry, am I bleeding?" she asked, pointing to her nose

"I don't think so" Harry said without even looking, he would smell the blood if it was there

"Are you sure? It really hurts" Cho whined

Harry sighed and moved his head closer to her to get a better look. He was about to tell her that she was fine when the girl reached up and seized his face. Harry let out a muffled protest when her lips latched onto his, but he couldn't risk pulling back in case he hurt her. He winced at the stabbing pains that shot through him. The stupid necklace telling him she wasn't his mate. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know how to find his mate so for all he knew it could have been Cho. He just flailed his arms until she was finished. He stared at her with his eyes wide in surprise as she pulled back and shot a smug look over Harry's shoulder.

Harry turned around to find Draco and Blaise standing a few feet behind them. Blaise seemed indifferent but Draco's expression was heart wrenching. His jaw was clenched and his nose proudly in the air. The very façade of coldness and superiority. But his bottom lip was wobbling and his eyes were full of tears. Betrayal and hatred hidden under his carefully sculpted mask.

"Draco…" Harry said as he took a step forward, not sure why he felt so guilty

"Save your breath" Draco hissed as he stepped inside the classroom

Harry wrenched himself out of Cho's grasp and made to go after Draco but Blaise stretched his arm out to stop the other boy.

"Leave him for a moment, let him calm down. Then go explain whatever we just saw" the dark skinned boy told Harry with a slight warning in his voice

Harry nodded and followed Blaise into the classroom. The Slytherin went to stand with Draco. Harry cast a sad look in Draco's direction before going to stand with Ron and Hermione.

Professor Snape had dressed all of the students in baggy dragon hide trousers and matching shirts that hung off of all of them like tents. Anyone with hair long enough to be held back by an elastic band had their locks tied back away from their face. They all looked disgusting to say the least. Harry grimaced and pulled Hermione closer to him. He looked her up and down before he pulled his wand out and pointed it at her.

"OI! Don't you dare point your wand at her!" Ron exclaimed

He pulled Hermione behind himself and turned to face Harry. The ginger boy drew his own wand and pressed the tip hard into Harry's chest. The shorter boy lowered his wand and winced in pain but tried not to make a move that could antagonise Ron any further. He could feel himself start to shake slightly. He could deal with confrontation when he was prepared for it, or when he could blend in as a Death Eater and hide behind the mask.

But, as he stood there with Ron's imposing figure towering over him, wand jammed into his chest, Harry could think of nothing bit his uncle. How Vernon would stand over him, just like Ron was. How Vernon would scream at him, just like Ron did. How Vernon would hurt him, just like Ron surely would.

"That is enough, Mr Weasley" Professor Snape drawled from beside them

The professor placed a hand on Ron's wand and pushed it away from Harry's chest. But Harry, lost in his memories, just shook harder. Severus seized his shoulders and turned him to face his teacher. Snape shook the boy and tapped his face a few times, but it made no difference. Harry was hyperventilating now, and his skin was much paler than it should be, even as a vampire. Snape cursed and caught Harry as his knees buckled. Severus picked the boy up and started walking to his office in the corner of the room.

He kicked the door open and lay Harry on the desk inside, he slammed the door shut to give them some privacy, ignoring the mumbling students left behind in the classroom. He pulled a drawer in his desk open to reveal several large syringes full of a thick, red liquid. He pulled one out and pushed the needle through Harry's tightly clenched lips. He pushed the plunger down and tilted Harry's head back to let the blood run down the boy's throat.

Severus stood back and waited for a few minutes. He watched as the blood entered Harry's system. The young vampire's skin turned a better colour and a blush appeared high on his cheeks. The dark bruises faded and seemed to melt away, leaving only Harry's milky white, but severely scarred skin behind. Harry coughed weakly and came back to himself.

"Are you okay?" Severus asked concernedly

Harry nodded and sat up. Severus smiled softly when he noticed that Harry was refusing to meet his eyes. Snape moved to sit cross legged on the desk with Harry.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of" Severus told the boy

Harry looked up with surprise in his eyes.

"Harry, you've been through so much. You will get over it, but you need us to do that. You need your friends, your family" Severus said as he squeezed Harry's shoulder

Harry nodded dumbly. Severus smiled again.

"I take it you were trying to hide those scars?" the man asked as he gestured at the obscenities etched into Harry's skin and the long scar marring his face

I was using Glamour spells, but it looks like they wear off if I feed. That's really going to be quite a nuisance" Harry said as he studied the scars

"I think I can get rid of them" Severus mumbled as he walked to a cupboard and began rummaging through its contents

"Really?" Harry asked excitedly

"Not permanently. Only as long as you take the potion" Severus said regretfully

"Oh, well, how long will that be?" Harry asked, slightly downtrodden

"Well, seeing as you came into this room with just bruises, I think it would be highly suspicious if you left with scars all over your body. So I dare say you would need to take it for as long as you plan to be around people who don't know about the scars" Severus replied

"Alright, what potion am I taking?" Harry asked

"Are you familiar with Polyjuice potion?" Professor Snape questioned in return

Harry's lips quirked into a smirk as he remembered Ron, Hermione and himself brewing the potion in his second year.

"No, I don't believe I am" He replied

"Really? Because I seem to remember the ingredients used to make the potion mysteriously went missing a few years ago. How curious" Severus joked

Harry laughed and blushed slightly. Severus smiled and produced a vial of the potion from the cupboard and held it up for Harry to see. The thick, brown liquid bubbled slowly and dripped down the sides of the vial.

"Don't you have to add a hair?" Harry asked curiously

"It can be any body part actually, why do you ask?" Severus questioned

"Oh, well, won't I just look the same if we use part of me from now?" Harry wondered aloud

"Are you aware of how many times you've been unconscious in the hospital wing?" Severus asked sarcastically

"Uh, quite a few times, I'd say. Why?" Harry questioned

"Every time a student is in the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey takes a sample from them and gives them to me in case their condition deteriorates and she needs me to make potions specifically for them" Professor Snape informed

"Seriously?" Harry asked incredulously

"Indeed, Harry. Just think about how many times you have been in the Hospital Wing! I could make you look like yourself in pretty much any of your school years" Severus said with a chuckle

Harry blushed and looked away with an embarrassed grin. Snape opened one of the drawers in his desk and rifled through it for a moment before he pulled out a little piece of parchment that had been folded a few times. He sat the vial of uncompleted Polyjuice potion on the desk and unfolded the parchment. He held it out to Harry do that the boy could see quite a substantial amount of black hair nestled in the makeshift parcel.

"That's all mine?" Harry asked curiously

"Indeed, it was taken when Madam Pomfrey checked your injuries after your little gallivant to the Department of Mysteries at the end of last year" Severus replied

"How long will it last" Harry asked

"Well, if you don't use it around people who already know, namely Ms Granger, Draco, the Slytherins and anyone else you've told, then it should last the year." Severus told him

"I won't be able to spend much time with the Slytherins" Harry said worriedly

"I'm sure you and Miss Granger will figure something out" Professor Snape said knowingly

"You know something you're not telling me, don't you?" Harry questioned suspiciously

"Yes" Severus answered shortly

"Are you going to tell me what it is?" Harry asked hopefully

"No, find out yourself" Severus replied as he walked to the door

"Wait! What are we going to tell them about my bruises?" Harry asked

"If anyone asks, tell them I gave you a calming draught and decided to heal the bruises while I was at it" Professor Snape replied

Harry carefully lengthened his hair so it looked no different to when he had entered the room and replaced long scar he'd not been able to conceal because of the Weasleys.

Harry nodded and followed as Severus left the office and went back to the front of the classroom. Harry went to stand next to Hermione again, the vampire didn't even look at Ron. But Ron was having none of it.

"What the bloody hell were you going to do to her?" the taller boy hissed angrily

Harry took a deep breath. He looked at Hermione for permission before pointing his wand at her again. Ron glared but didn't move to stop him like he had before. Harry whispered a spell, just to keep up the impression that he couldn't do it silently. Hermione's horrible, ill-fitting clothes shrunk to fit her perfectly. She smiled happily at him. Ron frowned as he looked at his own clothes. He could do that, Potter wasn't better than him. He wasn't! Ron smugly pointed his wand at himself and muttered a random incantation. His clothes disappeared and he was left standing there in only his boxers. The other students fell about themselves laughing. Harry sobered up long enough to take pity on Ron and conjured another set of protective clothes for the other boy.

Ron blushed bright red and pulled the robes on as quickly as humanly possible. Severus shouted for silence and the class stopped laughing almost immediately. He called up the students who had their own clothes. Harry, Blaise, Cho, Draco and Terry all walked up to the front of the classroom to allow Professor Snape to inspect their clothes. He pulled Blaise forward and nodded approvingly at the boy's casual dragon hide battle robes. He sent Blaise back to stand with the rest of the class who were silently watching the inspections. Severus pulled Terry forward before sending the boy back into the throng of students after approving his brown leather trousers and top. Snape took one look at Cho and sighed deeply.

"Miss Chang. Are you planning on fighting your attackers in a muggle strip club?" he asked sarcastically

"Pardon?" she asked, looking like a deer in headlights

"Your clothes would be completely ineffective against even a minor spell" Professor Snape informed her

"Why not?" Cho questioned incredulously

"Firstly, the dragon hide is fake, nothing more than a cheap plastic. Secondly, there is not enough of it, there is too much of your skin left vulnerable" Severus explained

"Oh, so what shall I do?" Cho asked

"You will wear a set of class robes until the first Hogsmeade weekend, during which I expect you to either purchase an appropriate set of clothes" he told her as he handed the girl a set of robes and sent her to get changed

Draco stepped forward and stood before his godfather. Harry's eyes roamed up and down Draco's physique. The blond was wearing a pair of quite tattered; tight leather trousers, a mesh leather shirt and a heavy pair what appeared to be muggle steel-toed boots. It took all Harry had to look away from the tantalizing sight. Severus approved Draco's clothes and the blond boy went to stand with Blaise without even a glance in Harry's direction.

Harry frowned as he stepped towards Professor Snape. He tried to ignore the pain of Draco's rejection, but it was physically painful for him not to be with his mate. He knew Draco was his mate, but he had heard Draco speaking with his father about loving someone else. Harry couldn't force him to choose Harry over the other person, so he would let Draco be happy.

Severus smiled comfortingly at him, well aware of how much Harry was hurting. The young vampire grimaced in return and shrugged off his coat. He grinned as he heard a collective gasp ripple through the classroom. This is what Harry lived for, he loved shocking people and destroying their expectations.

Everyone expected him to be the innocent little saviour. He was expected to be light to the core, Dumbledore's man through and through. And yet, here he stood before them, in a corset and a leather skirt, even though he had leather trousers on underneath, the skirt was still shocking to his classmates who knew him as his old self, clad in oversized jeans and tee shirts.

"Wonderful, Mr Potter. This is the ideal outfit to wear in a battle. The corset can be tightened or loosened to allow for things to be hidden and to make sure it doesn't fall off or restrict breathing, the skirt can conceal weapons and the trousers are flexible and offer appropriate coverage. Take note of all of that." Snape announced to the students with a subtle wink to Harry, he was obviously enjoying being able to see his students shocked

"I'm not dressing like a fucking faggot for a battle. Are we trying to kill our enemies with laughter?" a Ravenclaw exclaimed disgustedly from the back of the room

"Detention, Mr Duffy" Professor Snape drawled

"What! Why? All I did was speak my mind, you can't punish me for that!" the brunet boy protested

"Next time you feel the need to insult homosexuals, I suggest you ensure that your professor isn't one before you do so" Severus told the student bitingly

The whole class was instantly alive with amazement at the revelation. The students had always had theories about the man. That he was a vampire, that he was secretly Harry Potter's father or things like that, but nobody had thought he was gay. Whispers of disgust and delight alike raced throughout the room, from mouth to ear, emotions and opinions growing with every hushed word.

"For those of you who do not have suitable clothes and wish to buy a set, I suggest you model yourselves after Mr Potter's example" Snape said as if he couldn't hear the whispers

"Oh! You can help me pick them out on our date, Harry!" Cho shrieked as she bounded forward and latched onto the vampire's arm

"Date?" Draco asked incredulously

"Yes, Harry and I are going on a date during the first Hogsmeade weekend" Cho replied smugly as she flipped her hair in Draco's general direction

The whispers which had died down after Professor Snape's announcement, flared up again at the new gossip. Draco glared at Harry before the blond sniffed haughtily.

"Whatever. Have fun" he threw over his shoulder as he turned back to face the front of the classroom

"Why don't we get started? I'll pair you up and assign you each weapons. You can spend this lesson just getting to know a few different weapons, and Miss Chang? Please tie your hair back. You too actually, Mr Potter" Professor Snape drawled

He tossed two little elastic bands high into the air for them to catch. Harry caught his with ease but Cho fumbled for a moment before Harry sighed, snatched the band out of the air and handed it to her. She simpered out her thanks and used the elastic band to hold her hair in a bun at the top of her head. A few of the girls in the class complemented her on the hairstyle, telling her she looked beautiful and perfect, Harry couldn't see it. He rolled his eyes at the fawning females as he pulled his hair into a loose ponytail and watched Professor Snape walk around the room assigning pairs. As he stopped beside them, Cho tightened her grip on Harry's arm.

"I'm Harry's partner!" she exclaimed

"No you aren't. Mr Potter is far beyond your level, you would most likely get hurt" Snape informed her coolly

"But… THAT ISN'T FAIR!" the girl screeched angrily

"Miss Chang, please spare me your lovesick arguments and go work with Miss Parkinson" Snape said in a tone that left no doubt that it was not a request

Cho pouted and looked to Harry, hoping for some support. Harry just shrugged.

"Nothing I can do, Cho. He is the professor, so what he says goes" he told her

Cho stalked off in the other direction to stand with Pansy. Harry breathed a sigh of relief once she was out of earshot. Harry looked to Professor Snape to find out who his partner was.

"Draco Malfoy" Severus told him

"Are you sure? I don't think he particularly wants to see me at the minute" Harry said unhappily

"Well, if either of you fought a human, they could be hurt quite badly if you lost control" Snape murmured low enough for only Harry to hear

"I can control myself!" Harry argued

"Harry, you're used to killing humans, whether it be for food or training the Death Eaters. If you try to fight a human now then you'll kill them without even thinking about it!" Snape told him in a whisper

Harry frowned but nodded. Severus chuckled and clapped the boy on the shoulder before pushing him towards Draco. Harry stumbled and fell at the blond boy's feet. Draco looked down at him frostily before he walked off to the wall of weapons. Harry sighed but picked himself off of the floor and followed Draco across the room where Professor Snape was waiting for them. The Professor was surrounded by other pairs of students all waiting to get their weapons. Some of them were noticeably terrified and were hanging back from the main group, whereas others were jostling for position in Professor Snape's line of sight in an effort to get their weapons first. Harry followed Draco as the blond elbowed his way right to the front of the crowd. Snape eyed them for a moment before he handed the boys a pair of silver swords with brass hilts.

"Do your worst, boys" Snape said with a rare grin

Harry looked at Draco's livid expression and gulped before he led the blond boy to an empty space on the floor. Other pairs of students milled around, trying to get used to wielding weapons other than their wands. Harry saw Cho and Pansy both clutching archer's bows and aiming at targets on one of the walls. Pansy was quite good, Harry watched her fire an arrow straight into the centre of the target. Cho, however, was a complete disaster, she didn't hold the bow right and when she tried to hit the target, the arrow missed it's mark completely and sunk into the black drapes instead.

Harry snorted amusedly then hissed in pain as Draco's sword sliced into his shoulder, he looked at the smoking cut and grinned. He raised his sword and swung viciously at the blond boy. Draco ducked out of the way and slashed at Harry's legs. Harry jumped over the sword and moved back, determined not to be hit again. Draco advanced on him, swinging his sword as he came. But Harry just kept moving backwards. Draco ran out of patience after a few minutes of the chase and simply threw his sword at Harry. The raven haired vampire caught the weapon by the blade and quickly grabbed the handle instead as the silver burned his skin.

Harry moved quickly to throw Draco to the ground and place one of the swords at Draco's throat and the other over the boy's heart. The blond slumped in defeat. Harry threw the swords down and extended a hand to help Draco off of the floor. They stood together as Harry brushed some dirt off of Draco's clothes. They were startled by the sound of slow applause. They looked up to see that the whole class had stopped what they were doing to watch the pair of battling boys. Snape stood in front of the stunned students as he clapped with the tiniest hint of a smile pulling at the corner of his lips. He stepped forward and stood beside Harry and Draco to address the class.

"That is a perfect example of how to take advantage of both your opponent's emotions and how to use the element of surprise to gain the upper hand. Mr Malfoy attacked Mr Potter from behind whilst he was distracted, but Mr Potter retaliated by making Mr Malfoy so agitated that he relinquished his weapon. Well done boys. Ten points to Slytherin and Gryffindor"

The students were surprised at this; Snape never gave points to Gryffindors.

"You can't be serious? You want us to attack our enemy while their back is turned? thats just cowardice!" Ron proclaimed haughtily

"There is no room for nobility in war, Weasley" Snape relied icily

Harry grinned at Draco but only received a scowl in response. Draco pushed a stray lock of blond hair out of his eyes, walked towards the collection of weapons and picked up a bow and a quiver of arrows. Harry did the same and followed the veela to the wall of targets. Harry moved into an archer's stance and fired six arrows, one after another. Five of them punctured the target in a perfect circle and the sixth one landed right in the bull's eye. Draco raised an eyebrow before he moved into position and followed Harry's example of firing six arrows. Harry looked on in awe as every one of the blond veela's arrows landed where Harry's were, splitting them all in half. The pitiful remains of Harry's arrows fell to the ground; Draco picked them up and placed them in the other boy's hands. Harry tried not to get upset, veela were born with uncanny archery skills, but he couldn't stop the embarrassed blush that crept up his cheeks.

"Draco? Can I talk to you?" Harry asked as the pair stood by the weapons again

"Feel free" the blond replied frostily

"What you saw in the corridor… it wasn't what it looked like" Harry told the blond

"Really? Well, I saw my mate kissing someone who wasn't me. What was really happening?" Draco asked in a hiss

"She kissed me! Wait... I'm your mate?" Harry asked incredulously

"Of course you are, you idiot!" Draco scolded him

"But… but I heard you say…" Harry stammered

"You heard me say what?" Draco snapped, secretly curious

"I heard you say that your mate didn't love you back" Harry replied

"Yes, and after your little display of affection in the corridor, that statement has been proven correct" Draco said with his signature sneer.

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Snape chose that moment to tell the pair off for not working. Harry waited for Draco to reach for something before he bent to whisper in the other boy's ear.

"She is a pushy slut and I'm gay. I don't know how to tell who my mate is, but if I could choose? There's no contest between you two"

Draco looked up at Harry with wide eyes and an even wider smile. Harry grabbed the weapon closest to him and walked to an empty spot to avoid Severus' wrath. The boys made their way around most of the weapons. They used daggers, spears and even nun-chucks, which, for Harry at least, was more pretending to be a ninja than actually fighting. By the time the first half of the lesson was over, the whole class was exhausted.

"You all look absolutely shattered" Snape said with a little smirk

The class all groaned in response. Harry let a little snigger pass through his lips.

"Alright, we have an hour left so I suppose we could to some theory work for the rest of class" Snape mused

The class all let out sounds of grateful consent so Severus drew his wand and tapped a large metal section of the floor. The metal grating seemed to melt and drip upwards to form a huge ring of metal tables. Severus waved his wand and twenty six very comfortable and squashy armchairs appeared around the tables, all upholstered in various house colours. Most of the Gryffindors ran for the red chairs, seeing it as an insult to sit in a chair that wasn't in their house colour. Harry rolled his eyes but grinned as he saw Hermione pointedly ignore the red chair Ron had saved for her and walk to a blue one beside Terry Boot instead. Harry looked away from the furious Ron when he saw Draco waving him over to an empty green chair with a little group of Slytherins. Harry began to walk towards them but only made it halfway before Ron grabbed onto his elbow and started tugging him roughly in another direction.

"I saved a seat just for you, Mate!" the ginger boy lied enthusiastically as he pointed to the seat Hermione had rejected

Harry looked back to the Slytherins and saw Blaise holding an obviously angry Draco back as the blond fought to get to Harry.

"Erm… no, I have a seat already thanks" Harry mumbled without meeting Ron's eyes

But Ron didn't relent; he just pulled Harry towards the red seats more quickly. Harry tried in vain to pull away from Ron's tightening grip.

"Mr Weasley" Snape droned from behind them

Ron jumped in surprise and twisted to face Snape, jerking Harry's wrist painfully. Harry let out a cry of pain and Ron suddenly had five wands pointed at him. Cho, Draco, Hermione, Blaise and Pansy had all raced to help Harry. Ron looked wearily at the wands pointed at him.

"I suggest you release Mr Potter and find your seat" Severus told the boy in a tone which made it clear he wasn't suggesting anything.

"Yes, Sir" Ron mumbled

He skulked off to the chair he had tried to force Harry into a moment earlier. Draco scowled at the ginger's back and led Harry off to the seat he had saved for him, Pansy and Blaise followed behind. Harry sunk into the plush green armchair with a little sigh of contentment. Draco smiled at the other boy and flopped down into the chair beside him. Harry immediately twisted to place his feet in Draco's lap. The veela smiled again and leant forward to rest his elbows on the metal table.

"Alright, I believe you did some work on magical creatures with Professor Lupin in your third year?" Snape asked

"Yes, Sir" rang out from several students

"Well, magical creatures very capable of causing your death. They are our first topic for the year" Severus said as a blank screen popped into existence

Snape tapped the screen with his wand and black lines seemed to bleed out from where his wand had touched the white material. After a moment, the lines blended together and the word 'Vampires' was written across the screen. Harry snorted quietly in amusement.

"Now, how many of you are in a Care of Magical Creatures class?" Professor Snape questioned

Only Terry Boot and Pansy Parkinson raised their hands. Harry was quite surprised; neither of them seemed like the type to want to care for animals.

"The difference between Care of Magical Creatures and my class is that you will not be learning to care for magical creatures, you will be learning how to defend yourself against them and how to destroy them. I believe we should start with vampires" Severus announced with a subtle little grin to Harry


End file.
